Three Germans Who Allegedly Operated Dark Web Marketplace with Over 1 Million Users Face U.S. Narcot

[nitpicker]

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/three-germans-who-allegedly-operated-dark-web-marketplace-over-1-million-users-face-us

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 3, 2019

Three Germans Who Allegedly Operated Dark Web Marketplace with Over 1 Million Users Face U.S. Narcotics and Money Laundering Charges

Following a nearly two-year international investigation involving U.S. law enforcement and authorities in Germany and the Netherlands, federal prosecutors have charged three German nationals with being the administrators of Wall Street Market (WSM), which was one of the world’s largest dark web marketplaces that allowed vendors to sell a wide variety of contraband, including an array of illegal narcotics, counterfeit goods and malicious computer hacking software.
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A criminal complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles alleges that the three defendants, who currently are in custody in Germany, were the administrators of WSM, a sophisticated online marketplace available in six languages that allowed approximately 5,400 vendors to sell illegal goods to about 1.15 million customers around the world. Like other dark web marketplaces previously shut down by authorities – Silk Road and AlphaBay, for example – WSM functioned like a conventional e-commerce website, but it was a hidden service located beyond the reach of traditional internet browsers on the Tor network, a service designed to conceal user identities.

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.

The three defendants charged in the United States were arrested in Germany on April 23 and 24. They are:
•A 23-year-old resident of Kleve, Germany;
•A 31-year-old resident of Wurzburg, Germany; and
•A 29-year-old resident of Stuttgart, Germany.

These defendants also face charges in Germany. See: https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/double-blow-to-dark-web-marketplaces and https://twitter.com/bka.

A fourth defendant linked to Wall Street Market was charged yesterday in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, California. Marcos Paulo De Oliveira-Annibale, 29, of Sao Paulo, Brazil, also faces federal drug distribution and money laundering charges for allegedly acting as a moderator who, among other things, mediated disputes between vendors and their customers. Annibale, who used the online monikers “MED3LIN,” also acted as a public relations representative for WSM by, among others things, promoting WSM on websites such as Reddit, according to the complaint. The case naming Annibale was unsealed today when Brazilian authorities executed a search warrant at his residence.
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The affidavit in support of the criminal complaint filed in Los Angeles outlines how the defendants operated a sophisticated online marketplace that offered encrypted communications between buyers and sellers, as well as an online forum to discuss vendors and the quality of their wares. The affidavit also describes an international investigation that was able to identify the three administrators of WSM, show how they previously operated another German-based darknet marketplace that shut down in 2016, and link them to computer servers in Germany and the Netherlands that were used to operate WSM and process virtual currency transactions.

The three defendants allegedly created WSM, maintained the website, and operated the marketplace to ensure that buyers could access vendor pages and that financial transactions were properly processed. The investigation outlined in the complaint affidavit linked the three defendants to WSM in a number of ways, including their access to the WSM computer infrastructure. One defendant, for example, used virtual private networks to access WSM computers, but when a VPN connection would fail, his IP was revealed and authorities were able to identify his specific location.

The three defendants charged in the Central District of California were arrested in Germany after the WSM administrators conducted an exit scam in the wake of WSM recently becoming regarded as the world’s pre-eminent dark web marketplace and gaining a significant influx of new vendors and users, according to the affidavit. On April 16, vendors realized they could not collect the virtual funds that had been placed in escrow by their customers, which prompted German authorities to execute a series of arrest and search warrants.
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[dewsgirl]

1. Your article prompted me to look up old markets I knew of,

9 out 10 are gone. I know Argon and Alpha Bay took the place of Silk Road when it first shutdown. They were huge, and now apparently gone. Silk Road somehow is back on it's at least 3rd version.
It seems as soon as one is busted 2 more pop up in it's place.