likewise: BKA & ZIT schalten Darknet-Plattform Kingdom Market ab, Lars Sobiraj, 20.12.23The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) of the Public Prosecutor General's Office in Frankfurt am Main have reported another success in the fight against criminal marketplaces on the Darknet. They have seized the server infrastructure of the illegal marketplace "Kingdom Market", which is spread across several countries, and thus shut it down, they announced on Wednesday. Law enforcement authorities from the USA, Switzerland, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine were involved in the operation known as "Fallen Kingdom". The seized IT devices and the investigations to identify those responsible are currently still being evaluated.
According to the BKA and ZIT, Kingdom Market is an English-language darknet platform that has been accessible via the anonymization network Tor and the Invisible Internet Project (I2P) since at least March 2021. It was primarily used to trade in illegal narcotics such as drugs. In addition, malware, criminal services and forged documents were "profitably advertised" via the forum. Most recently, over 42,000 products are said to have been offered on the marketplace, including around 3,600 from Germany. Tens of thousands of customer accounts and several hundred seller accounts were registered on it. They paid on the platform with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Monero and Zcash, with the operators retaining 3 percent commission.
Last year, the two law enforcement agencies succeeded in taking the darknet marketplace "Hydra Market" offline in another internationally supported operation. At that time, 543 Bitcoin worth around 23 million euros were also confiscated. This was followed by six arrests in Europe and the USA at the beginning of the year. The authorities are also said to have caught the operator of the crypto exchange Bitzlato.
Since an amendment to the German Criminal Code (StGB) in summer 2021, anyone operating criminal marketplaces via the darknet, for example, can be punished with up to ten years in prison. In the case of commercial activity, investigators may monitor the telecommunications of suspects and the servers used and use state Trojans for secret online searches. In the case of Kingdom Market, the prosecutors refer to the use of "innovative investigative strategies."
Tor/I2P: Police dismantle illegal "Kingdom Market"
Tor/I2P: Police dismantle illegal "Kingdom Market"
Darknet: Polizei hebt "Kingdom Market" aus, Stefan Krempl, 20.12.2023
