Overview
- German police shut the resurrected Crimenetwork marketplace and Spanish authorities arrested a 35-year-old German in Mallorca under a European arrest warrant.
- Investigators seized about €194,000 in assets and secured extensive user and transaction data that they are now analyzing.
- The rebooted site drew roughly 22,000 users and more than 100 sellers offering stolen data, drugs, and forged documents, with evidence pointing to over €3.6 million in revenue.
- Transactions on the platform used cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Monero, which allow buyers and sellers to mask identities and route funds outside traditional banking.
- The original market was taken down in December 2024 after more than $100 million in crypto flowed through it from 2018 to 2024, and the prior operator was sentenced in March 2026 to 7 years and 10 months with over €10 million forfeited.