Tor: BKA shuts down “Archetype Market”

[lgillis]

https://heise.de/-10447892, Dirk Knop, 16.6. 2025

Law enforcement officers have arrested the suspected operator of the darknet market “Archetyp Market” and shut down the platform.

The BKA arrested the suspected operator of the online drug marketplace “Archetyp Market” in Barcelona on Wednesday last week. The Spanish national police arrested the 30-year-old German with a special unit. The investigators accuse him of operating the illegal online marketplace, which was only accessible on the darknet - i.e. the Tor network - as administrator together with other moderators.

The federal police say that the “Archetype Market” platform is one of the world's largest “and longest-running criminal trading platforms on the Darknet”. Its members mainly sold drugs such as amphetamine, cannabis, fentanyl, heroin and cocaine. The total turnover of the platform is said to be 250 million euros. Before it was shut down by the authorities, there were around 17,000 offers for sale on the platform, which were submitted by around 3200 sellers to around 610,000 customer accounts.

The means of payment on “Archetyp Market” was the cryptocurrency Monero. The operator is also suspected of “gang-related illegal trafficking in narcotics in not insignificant quantities”. Law enforcement officers searched his home in Barcelona and properties in Hanover, the Minden-Lübbecke district and one in Bucharest as part of the operation. They were able to secure eight cell phones, four computers, 34 data carriers and assets totaling around 7.8 million euros as evidence.

According to the BKA, there were also further coordinated searches in Germany and Sweden. This was done as part of their own investigations into moderators and sellers on “Archetyp Market”. The investigators searched a total of 20 properties, including two in North Rhine-Westphalia, two in Lower Saxony, one in Hesse and one in Baden-Württemberg (all in Germany). They also arrested seven other people in Sweden. A total of 47 smartphones, 45 computers and notebooks, narcotics and other assets were seized from all suspects. The prosecutors now want to analyze the seized data and use it as a basis for further investigations.

Operators and users of darknet marketplaces cannot rest assured. Law enforcement authorities repeatedly succeed in striking blows against such platforms, most recently against the “Crimenetwork” at the end of last year.

[Chef K]

I must also mention some things,

1: the team behind the takedown of Archetype Market released a Video both on the clearnet and on Archetypes official Dread account

https://www.operation-deepsentinel.com/

2: people are accusing said video to have AI Generated Elements

[Chef K]

Bump

By the way, here is the Dread post I was talking about:

http://dreadytofatroptsdj6io7l3xptbet6o ... 7f6f48efb7

If wait times weren't any slower, I could have posted this SOONER!!!