Germany Takes Down Hydra, World's Largest Darknet Market
upstart writes:
Germany takes down Hydra, world's largest darknet market:
The servers of Hydra Market, the most prominent Russian darknet platform for selling drugs and money laundering, have been seized by the German police.
The police were also able to seize 543 bitcoins from the profits of Hydra, which are currently worth a little over $25 million.
The confiscated money indicate the size of the Hydra market, which counted around 19,000 registered seller accounts that served at least 17 million customers around the world.
In an announcement today, the Central Office for Combating Cybercrime (ZIT) and Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) estimate that Hydra Market had a turnover of $1.35 billion in 2020, making it the largest darknet market in the world.
[...] Apart from narcotics and money laundering services, which were the main focus, Hydra also offered stolen databases, forged documents, and hacking for hire services.
At the moment, Hydra's homepage shows that the BKA acting on behalf of the Attorney General's Office in Frankfurt am Main seized the market's infrastructure following a coordinated international law enforcement effort.
[...] In the meantime, the seized equipment most likely contains incriminating evidence on Hydra sellers and clients, so a significant number of users could be charged in an upcoming second phase.
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