Police in Germany recently took down the country’s largest dark web marketplace Chemical Revolution, in an operation that led to 11 arrests. The dark web marketplace allowed consumers to buy drugs using bitcoin.
As first reported by The Next Web, a press release from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police notes the site’s servers were seized by German police officials and the French criminal police, and that the investigation started after the arrest of a 26-year-old in Berlin last year.
At the time, authorities seized various kilograms of various drugs, and afterward arrested other individuals, including a Dutch national handling over 14 kilograms of various drugs, as well as a 24-year-old German accused of handling the drugs’ shipments.
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— CryptoGlobe (@CryptoGlobeInfo) February 2, 2019
The press release notes the operation was a joint effort by various European law enforcement agencies: from Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and France. The development comes after several leading dark web markets suffered the same fate.
AlphaBay and Hansa, two influential marketplaces that helped privacy coins like Monero (XMR) gain popularity, were taken down in 2017, while Wall Street Market shut down in May of this year, in what was believed to be an exit scam.
A report from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis revealed, earlier this year, that in 2018 bitcoin transactions related to dark web markets doubled, compared to 2017, despite AlphaBay and Hansa being taken down.