The German authorities with the help of the French criminal police have busted Chemical Revolution, considered one of the largest dark web marketplace, which allowed consumers to buy narcotics with Bitcoin.
The investigation began following the arrest of a 26-year-old from Brandenburg on the Havel, a town west of Berlin, in 2018.
At that time, the law enforcement arrested the suspect for crimes connected to drug trafficking. During the arrest, the police found “just under 50 kilograms of amphetamine, 16 kilograms of cannabis, 2 kilograms of MDMA, 900 grams of cocaine, 600 grams of heroin and a high number of ecstasy tablets, and LSD tabs.”
The suspect was mainly responsible for overseeing the sale of narcotics over the internet, coordinating the procurement of narcotics, and managing the funds of the offender’s group.
Investigators learned that the suspect had been storing the drugs for Chemical Revolution.
According to the press release, Chemical Revolution was within the authorities' scope of extensive operational measures in the period from February 13th, 2019 to May 28th, 2019.
Following the suspect's arrest. the authorities seized the site, and arrested 11 more people in the process, including a Dutch national and two persons from Poland
The press release noted that the operation was a joint effort made by the German Federal Criminal Police Office as well as the French Criminal Police. And according to the director of Europol Catherine De Bolle, the discoveries and investigations involving all of these entities are proof of “the importance of law enforcement cooperation at an international level.”
The development comes after several leading dark web markets suffered the same fate.
AlphaBay and Hansa for example, were both taken down in 2017. Then the Wall Street Market was terminated in May, in what was believed to be an exit scam. And just a few days before Chemical Revolution, an alleged moderator of AlphaBay was indicted for facilitating sales on the site before law enforcement shut it down as a result of Operation Bayonet.
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.
The numerous arrests and shut down of websites, are the results of the authorities in becoming more vigilant when it comes to the dark web.
The authorities are aware that most of purchases and orders of narcotics are made using cryptocurrencies through these types of websites. As cryptocurrencies are becoming more and more traceable, this is why they are developing more efficient strategies and methods to track down both the buyers and sellers.
As explained by De Bolle, though anonymity is promoted on the dark web, this platform is not nearly as under the radar as anyone believes.
