Cops arrest man suspected of being Dream Market kingpin

A man police suspected of being the administrator of the former leading online drug bazaar Dream Market is facing charges in both his native Germany and the US following his arrest earlier this month. Prosecutors claim Owe Martin Andresen, 49, is the individual known by the Speedstepper" alias, one of the few Dream Market admins identified by law enforcement in the 2019 attempts to shutter the platform. While other crime leaders on the platform have been convicted, it took the authorities years to identify their latest suspect, whom they believe was main admin of the website. Authorities said they tracked him down by monitoring crypto wallets, and tracking purchases of gold bars that the indictment claims were delivered to his home address. Other lower-level admins have long been convicted, including French national Gal Vallerius, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison a year after being arrested at Atlanta airport in 2017 on his way to attend the World Beard and Mustache Championships (yes, really). Andresen was arrested by German police on May 7 after the US indicted him in January, charging him with several counts of money laundering offenses. He faces similar charges in Germany. Authorities spent years gathering small pieces of evidence that eventually tied Andresen to Dream Market's helm. After the platform shut down in 2019 amid mounting pressure from law enforcement, none of the suspected admins touched Dream's infrastructure, including the operation's known cryptocurrency wallets, which contained millions of dollars' worth of tokens. Three years later, between November and December 2022, Andresen allegedly accessed these numerous wallets and transferred the contents into a single, consolidated one - a step only someone with access to Dream's private key could carry out. Police believe this was Speedstepper. The next breadcrumb came almost a year later, when in August 2023, Andresen allegedly used an Atlanta-based cryptocurrency service provider to purchase gold bars from various international companies using the funds from the consolidated wallet. The indictment claims he had those gold bars shipped directly to his house in Germany, instead of choosing a more neutral, less compromising location. Between then and April 2025, German police believe they have identified several other money laundering schemes executed by Andresen, washing more than $2 million in the process. Upon his arrest on May 7, police searched Andresen's residence and two other locations," at which officers found gold bars worth approximately $1.7 million, more than $23,000 in cash, as well as several bank accounts and crypto wallets containing roughly a combined $1.2 million. All of these proceeds are thought to stem from the funds generated by Dream Market and the various fees it charged for transactions and sellers to list their illicit wares. Dream Market operated between 2013 and 2019 and benefited greatly from the Alphabay and Hansa seizures, scooping up their users after playing second fiddle to both platforms for much of their respective reigns. According to US Attorney Theodore Hertzberg, at its peak, Dream had around 100,000 concurrent listings, most of which were for drugs. The US said the market was responsible for the trafficking of huge quantities of illegal narcotics, including more than 90kg of heroin, 450kg of cocaine, 25kg of crack cocaine, 45kg of methamphetamine, 13kg of oxycodone, and 36kg of fentanyl. Andresen allegedly channeled commissions earned from selling illegal drugs, stolen personally identifiable information, counterfeit identification documents, and other items through cryptocurrency wallets and even converted his ill-gotten gains into gold bars," said US Attorney Hertzberg. Thanks to the close coordination between federal and German law enforcement, Andresen and his co-conspirators will no longer profit from the online sales of narcotics and fraud services, and Andresen will be prosecuted in both Germany and the United States as a result of his actions." Andresen faces 12 federal charges - six counts each of international and domestic concealment money laundering - each carrying a maximum 20-year sentence. German authorities also charged Andresen with several" counts of domestic money laundering, with each charge carrying a maximum five-year prison stint. (R)