The German authorities have taken down the notorious dark web marketplace known for selling drugs, malware, and other illegal items.
The federal police service (BKA) and the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office for cybercrime (ZIT) announced the news on Wednesday, but revealed the coordinated action took place on December 16.
Kingdom Market, which was accessible via the Tor and I2P anonymization networks, had been operational since at least March 2021, with a focus on trading narcotics. However, visitors could also by hacking tools, fake government IDs and other criminal services.
Tens of thousands of customers and several hundred sellers were registered with the marketplace, which listed over 42,000 products at the time of its takedown. Buyers paid in Bitcoin, Litecoin, Monero and Zcash to maintain anonymity and the operators of the site took a 3% cut, it added.
Helping in the operation were law enforcement authorities from the U.S., Switzerland, Moldova, and Ukraine. U.S. authorities assisting include the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation agency, the Department of Justice, and the FBI. The hunt is now on for the administrators of the site.
One of the suspects, Alan Bill, has already been arrested in the US on drug trafficking, identity theft and money laundering conspiracy charges,
Although the Kingdom Market dark web marketplace has been taken offline, other forums will take its place. It’s also conceivable that the takedown may only be temporary: Similar forums have risen from the dead before after supposedly being taken offline in law enforcement operations.
