The takedown of Archetyp Market is a clear signal that law enforcement agencies, supported by advanced blockchain intelligence, can disrupt even the most entrenched illicit platforms. But the resilience and evolution of these networks underscore the need for continued cross-border collaboration, technical innovation, and real-time monitoring to stay ahead of the next generation of darknet threats. Archetyp was more than just the next online drug market to fall, having absorbed much of the vendor traffic displaced by earlier market closures.
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- Operation RapTor builds on the successes of prior years’ operations and takedowns of marketplaces, which resulted in the seizure of darknet infrastructure from Nemesis, Tor2Door, Bohemia, and Kingdom Markets, providing investigators across the world with investigative leads and evidence.
- German police claim to have disrupted the country’s most popular underground market for drugs and cybercrime.
- The purpose of these marketplaces on the Tor network is to provide users and providers of darknet services with anonymity and security, respectively.
- The operation, codenamed DisrupTor, netted some $6.5 million (€5.5 million) in cash and virtual currency, as well as weapons and 500 kilos of drugs — such as cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, oxycodone and methamphetamine.
- Today (June 16, 2025), Europol announced the successful dismantling of Archetyp Market, the longest-running darknet drug marketplace, following a sweeping international operation coordinated across six countries.
- “With this takedown, law enforcement has taken out one of the dark web’s longest-running drug markets, cutting off a major supply line for some of the world’s most dangerous substances,” said Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, deputy executive director of operations at Europol.
The report said the cocaine seized in 2018 was also more pure and that, “Indicators point to high availability of cocaine on the European market and signs of growth in countries where it was previously uncommon.” Across Europe, 42 arrests were made in Germany, eight in the Netherlands, four in the UK and three in Austria; 121 people were arrested in the US. Europol said police operations took place last week across Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain and Sweden to dismantle the dark web Archetyp Market. Bussweiler confirms that the encryption used in the Tor network prevents investigators from obtaining real IP addresses. “For example, fake purchases are made on the drug platforms in order to obtain further investigative leads from the packages sent,” the public prosecutor reveals. BKA’s announcement says investigations into Nemesis Market started in October 2022, involving German, Lithuanian, and American agencies, including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).
The change in tactics netted a record number of arrests for the operation, beating the 150 arrested following the takedown of DarkMarket, and 179 following the takedown of Wall Street Market. Users across multiple forums had previously expressed concerns about being victims of an exit scam, where marketplace administrators simply disappear with customers’ funds. Such signatures are intended to confirm that vendors still have access to their accounts and have not been arrested or compromised. While the method has its limitations, HugBunter argued that failure to provide a cryptographic signature alongside continued account activity could be telling.
European Drug Trends Monitor
While the authorities continue trying to auction off the 1,197 bitcoins seized from his 10 wallets, his lawyer, Stefan Costabel, is pouring over the many boxes of investigation files, preparing for what may be his hardest defense ever. The German agency said it teamed up with law enforcement from the U.S. and Lithuania to investigate the Nemesis operation. During the year-and-a-half-long investigation, they discovered marketplace infrastructure in Germany and Lithuania, the BKA said. The website launched in 2015 selling drugs, hacked materials, forged documents and illegal digital services such as Bitcoin-mixing – which cyber-criminals use to launder stolen or extorted digital coins.
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Europol said in a statement on Monday that between June 11 and 13, 300 officers were deployed to carry out a ‘series of coordinated actions’ across Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain and Sweden targeting the platform’s administrators, vendors and technical infrastructure. The operation resulted in the seizure of 50.8 million euros ($53.4 million) — in cash and virtual currencies, nearly 1,900 pounds of drugs and 117 firearms in a series of raids in several countries. Its alleged administrator, a 30-year-old German national who has not yet been named, was cuffed by officers at his apartment in Barcelona, and “measures were taken in Germany and Sweden against one moderator and six of the marketplace’s highest vendors,” officials stated. The Revolution Market is an extremely simple marketplace that possesses all the features necessary for a fundamental dark-net market.
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Archetyp Market quietly emerged on the dark web in May 2020 and quickly became a dominant force in illegal narcotics distribution. Through an extensive network of over 3,200 registered vendors, the platform listed more than 17,000 drug-related products. From hard drugs like cocaine and heroin to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, the offerings were both diverse and deadly. With every transaction conducted in Monero — a cryptocurrency known for its privacy features — law enforcement had significant difficulty tracking financial flows. THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Authorities in the U.S. and Europe arrested nearly 300 people, confiscated over $53 million, and seized a dark web marketplace as part of an international crackdown on drug trafficking that officials say was the largest operation of its kind.
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The BKA also said 20 additional properties were searched, mainly targeting Archtetyp moderators and vendors. In total, police seized 47 smartphones, 45 computers, as well as narcotics and other assets, which will be analyzed for further investigative leads. The suspected admin of the operations owns property in Hanover and Bucharest too, all of which were searched by domestic law enforcement. The focus of the investigators was on a 30-year-old German who is suspected of having acted as the administrator of Archetyp Market.
Dark Web Drug Trafficking
For nearly three years, WSM allegedly was operated on the dark web by the three men who now face charges in both the United States and Germany. An “exit scam” was allegedly conducted last month when the WSM administrators took all of the virtual currency held in marketplace escrow and user accounts – believed by investigators to be approximately $11 million – and then diverted the money to their own accounts. Exit scams are common among large darknet marketplaces, which typically hold money in escrow while a vendor delivers illicit goods. This joint report prepared by the EMCDDA and Europol considers the latest findings from international research, fresh empirical data, and operational information and intelligence in order to illuminate how darknet markets function and how they relate to criminal behaviour.
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Maximilian was a busy young man who planned his operations meticulously and was adequately equipped for comprehensive trade in narcotics worldwide. He seems to have been especially diligent about securing the door to his room—to this day the defendant claims that his mother and stepfather knew nothing about his profitable startup because he would fortify himself in his room whenever he was conducting business. Another thing that stood out to investigators was the routine nature of his deliveries.
Everything the police needed for further investigations and for effortlessly shutting down the platform was laid out for them on a silver platter, from Cloudflare access to the login details for his servers at a Dutch company. Shortly after the seizure, the Shiny Flakes website displayed a banner advertising career opportunities with the police in Saxony. Hydra specialised in same-day ‘dead drop’ services, where drug dealers (vendors) hide packages in public places before informing customers of the pick-up location. The platform specialized in synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which accounted for 144 kg of seizures linked to the operation. The platform, active since 2020, facilitated over €250 million in drug sales using the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) and operated via the Tor network. Law enforcement agencies labeled the sweep as Operation SpecTor, after the Tor browser that allows access to the dark web.
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According to prosecutors, a courier from the Netherlands drove to the Gohlis district of Leipzig each Thursday to replenish Maximilian’s supply of drugs—investigators knew this from watching the package station and the entrance to his house. On February 24th, the authorities allowed Maximilian to meet the courier to receive 25,000 ecstasy pills, 20 kilos of hash, 10,000 doses of LSD and 27 kilos of amphetamine without incident. After the drop, the courier took off, only to be nabbed by the police in a parking lot after turning a few corners while Maximilian was carrying the heavy boxes up to his room. People following the case have asked how the police were able to shut down the expansively-networked drug empire so quickly.
After Maximilian S.’s surprising confession at the end of September, the presiding judge, Norbert Göbel, found him guilty of constructing and running the Shiny Flakes online shop. From December 2013 up until his arrest on February 26th, 2015 he received 4.4 million euros (about $4.8 million) worth of Bitcoin (3.9 million euros after loss in value, or about $4.2 million) in revenue. Those arrested include 65 people in the U.S., 47 in Germany, 24 people in the United Kingdom, four in Italy, four in the Netherlands, three in France, two in Switzerland and one person in Bulgaria. “Our observation started in March 2014, and from this day on, we got more and more information about the darknet and Shiny Flakes,” she told Wired. On February 24 this year, police allowed him to meet and receive an order of 25,000 ecstasy pills, 20kg of hash, 10,000 doses of LSD and 27kg of amphetamine from his courier without incident.
PGP support and two-factor authentication are both available on the market as an additional layer of security. Even though relatively small in comparison to the overall retail market for drugs, the sale of pharmaceuticals in these markets is significant and appears to be growing. Europol’s Deputy Executive Director of Operations, Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, called the takedown a decisive strike against a platform that had become a critical node in the global supply chain for some of the world’s most dangerous substances. Three more people were arrested in connection with Crimemarket elsewhere in the country, as police go after users of the site as well as its administrators.
