Police arrest 150 suspects after closure of dark web’s largest illegal marketplace
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge A 10-month investigation following the closure of the dark web's largest illegal marketplace, DarkMarket, has resulted in the arrest of 150 suspected drug vendors and buyers.
DarkMarket was taken offline earlier this year as part of an international operation. The site boasted some 500,000 users and facilitated around 320,000 transactions, reports the EU's law enforcement agency, Europol, with clientele buying and selling everything from malware and stolen credit card information, to weapons and drugs. When German authorities arrested the site's alleged operator in January this year, they also seized valuable evidence of transactions which led to this week's arrest of key players.
According to the US Department of Justice and Europol,...