These actions provided investigators across the globe with invaluable leads and evidence, strengthening the ongoing fight against cybercrime and illicit activities on the darknet. Community consensus and users close to the Abacus team ruled out an FBI operation as a likely reason, leaning more towards an exit scam explanation for the sudden takedown of the platform. In the days that followed, Abacus Market’s entire online infrastructure, including its clearnet mirror, went offline without a seizure banner or any indication that law enforcement was involved. Blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs reports that Abacus shutting down so abruptly has all the indications of either an exit scam or a covert law enforcement operation dismantling the activity.
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Domains for Archetyp have since been replaced with a seizure notice, which indicates law enforcement groups across Europe, in addition to the FBI and US Homeland Security, participated in the investigation. The site had attracted more than 600,000 users worldwide, raking in at least €250 million ($290 million) in transactions. On Monday, Europol announced it had dismantled Archetyp Market, which had been around since 2020, making it one of the “most enduring” dark web drug providers, the agency said. Time and again, the ecosystem as a whole has shown to be resilient to police intervention.” “If they did arrest some of the most prominent vendors, there may be a bit of impact,” says Christin.
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In July 2017 a global law enforcement coalition Operation Bayonet struck. After Silk Road’s fall, AlphaBay rose in late 2014 as the largest dark web market ever. By late 2013 it had 13,000 drug listings and was used by thousands of dealers and over 100,000 buyers.
This “market cannibalization” has further destabilized the landscape, pushing vendors and buyers to seek refuge in smaller, more secure spaces. Historically, the darknet drug trade has been dominated by large, multi-purpose platforms like AlphaBay and DrugHub. They hailed Operation RapTor as a major leap forward in tackling sophisticated criminal outfits that try to hide their fentanyl and opioid sales under the veil of dark web anonymity.
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During the investigation, federal law enforcement seized cryptocurrency valued at $75 million at the time of the seizures and cash and precious metals. Thousands of vendors advertised goods and services on Empire Market, including controlled substances, compromised and stolen account credentials, stolen and counterfeit credit card information, and counterfeit currency. On the page for each listing, users could pick a predefined quantity of the drug chosen by the vendor, typically measured in grams or number of pills, and proceed to checkout. Archetyp was seized by the BKA in June 2025 in an operation called Operation Deep Sentinel. During the investigation, federal law enforcement seized cryptocurrency valued at $75 million at the time of the seizures, as well as cash and precious metals.
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For information concerning the process for seeking removal from an OFAC list, including the SDN List, please refer to OFAC’s Frequently Asked Question 897 here. OFAC’s Economic Sanctions Enforcement Guidelines provide more information regarding OFAC’s enforcement of U.S. sanctions, including the factors that OFAC generally considers when determining an appropriate response to an apparent violation. Violations of OFAC regulations may result in civil or criminal penalties. OFAC’s designation of Parsarad was the result of strong partnership and coordination with the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, FinCEN, and a range of European law enforcement partners. In addition to offering narcotics for sale, Nemesis facilitated the sale of a wide variety of other goods and services such as false identification documents and professional hacking services that enabled buyers to hire hackers to illegally seize control of the online accounts and communications of selected victims. Today’s action, taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14059, which targets proliferators of narcotics and their means of production, underscores the United States’ commitment to combatting all means of supplying narcotics to the United States.
Srinivasan received virtual currency as payment for the drugs and then routed that virtual currency through cryptocurrency exchanges. Srinivasan also used the encrypted messaging application Wickr to communicate with and sell drugs to customers. Incognito Market sold illegal narcotics including heroin, cocaine, LSD, MDMA, oxycodone, methamphetamine, ketamine, and alprazolam, as well as misbranded prescription medication. While concealing their identities with a unique username or “moniker,” users were able to search thousands of listings for narcotics of their choice. Incognito Market was available globally to anyone with internet access using the Tor web browser on the “dark web” or “darknet.” Incognito Market was designed to facilitate seamless narcotics transactions, incorporating many features of legitimate e-commerce sites such as branding, advertising, and customer service. Until it shut down in March 2024, Incognito Market sold more than $100 million of narcotics—including hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine.
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Throughout 2024, DNM vendors also sent far more value to personal wallets and stored funds on-chain. Last year, DNM vendors sent a significantly higher portion of their funds to DeFi than they did historically. Besides Hydra operators, other DNM administrators faced criminal prosecution in 2024. As reported last year, some drug shops have been outsourcing services like website hosting and payment processing. Blacksprut, which rose to prominence with Mega in the wake of Hydra’s 2022 sanctions designation, law enforcement seizure, and subsequent collapse, came in third with 13.6% less revenue YoY. It was through this investigation that law enforcement identified Desnica as the operator of Monopoly Market.
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“The comprehensive data seized is now being analyzed and provides further investigative leads,” the agency said, suggesting law enforcement will try to identify users and vendors of the dark web marketplace. BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Police across Europe have dismantled a dark web drug marketplace known as 'Archetyp Market', the pan-European Europol police body said on Monday, which added that U.S. authorities had also assisted them in the operation. The German police have seized infrastructure for the darknet Nemesis Market cybercrime marketplace in Germany and Lithuania, disrupting the site's operation.
Historically, DNMs have been known for the illicit drug trade, but in recent years have differentiated themselves with unique service offerings. While 2024 was likely a record year for crypto crime revenue overall, darknet market (DNM) and fraud shop inflows fell, with DNMs receiving just over $2 billion in BTC on-chain, and fraud shops $225 million. A series of law enforcement takedowns in the last few years have shaped the 2024 drug and fraud ecosystems. The U.S. Department of Justice charged a 33-year-old citizen of Croatia and Serbia with allegedly operating a drug trafficking platform called Monopoly Market on the darknet. Germany led Operation Deep Sentinel, but authorities from other countries also assisted in the Europe-wide efforts, including the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the US. Archetyp's website went down ostensibly for maintenance late last week, sparking fears among users that the admin was pulling an exit scam – taking all user and vendor market balances and disappearing.
It marks the most significant JCODE operation to date, building on years of enforcement actions and marketplace takedowns, including Kingdom Market, Tor2Door, Bohemia, and Nemesis. Last year, Germany shut down the servers for the infamous Russian darknet marketplace Hydra and seized around seizing €23 million worth of Bitcoin. While 155 of the arrests took place in the US, authorities seized $53.4 million in cash and digital currencies, 850kg (or 1,873 lbs) of drugs, and 117 firearms worldwide. Archetyp was founded in May 2020 as an online marketplace to facilitate the illicit drug trade. CHICAGO — A Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York investigation, in coordination with law enforcement partners, has resulted in charges against two men for allegedly operating Empire Market, a dark web marketplace that enabled users to anonymously buy and sell more than $430 million in illegal goods and services around the world. “The illicit movement of opioids poses a significant threat to public health and safety – whether by known transnational criminal gang members across international borders or anonymously through darknet spaces,” said Senior Official Performing the Duties of Deputy Director P.J. Lechleitner of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
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Authorities confiscated over two metric tons of drugs, 144 kilograms of fentanyl-laced substances, 180 firearms, and hundreds of millions in crypto assets, as per the DOJ statement released Thursday. McDonald operated under the monikers “Malachai Johnson,” “SouthSideOxy,” and “JefeDeMichoacan.” McDonald created, monitored, and maintained the darknet vendor profiles, including by updating drug listings and shipment options, tracking drug orders, and offloading Monero cryptocurrency received as drug deal payments into cryptocurrency wallets that McDonald controlled. According to court documents and statements made in court, these three prolific darknet vendors were collectively responsible for fulfilling over 13,000 drug orders shipped throughout the United States, ranging in size from user quantities, e.g., 5 pills, to “reseller” quantities, e.g., 10,000 pills. Joshua Vasquez, Joseph Vasquez, and Roman conspired to sell counterfeit Adderall containing methamphetamine on darknet markets such as Bohemia and Tor2Door. The court record also shows that Ta communicated with Srinivasan about drug orders, obtained fentanyl-laced pills and methamphetamine from sources of supply, stored those drugs in his residence, and mailed out packages with drugs to customers who had ordered them from Srinivasan on the “redlightlabs” account.
The Nemesis Market was launched in 2021 as a new marketplace to purchase illegal drugs and narcotics, stolen data and credit cards, and various cybercrime services related to ransomware, phishing, and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. That’s the day that German police seized Wall Street Market, the popular underground bazaar that gave international authorities everything they needed to upend the dark web drug trade. At the same time, financial enforcers like OFAC sanctioned individuals running darknet markets—including Iranian national Behrouz Parsarad of Nemesis—demonstrating how financial tools are being brought into alignment with traditional law enforcement. One of the most high-profile targets of Operation RapTor—the largest coordinated global crackdown on darknet drug trafficking to date—was Incognito Market, a dark web narcotics marketplace that operated with remarkable scale, anonymity, and apparent impunity. International authorities collaborated to shut down one of the largest dark web marketplaces, DarkMarket, in 2021, which led to the arrest of 150 alleged drug vendors. These leads allow U.S. and international law enforcement agencies to identify darknet drug vendors and buyers, resulting in a series of coordinated, but separate, law enforcement investigations, resulting in the statistics announced today.
- Operation Deep Sentinel is the latest international law enforcement collaboration against cybercrime, shutting down Archetyp – one of the largest dark web drug marketplaces.
- From at least April 2021 until May 2023, McDonald and others conspired to sell fentanyl and cocaine via multiple darknet marketplaces.
- In stepped Empire Market which appeared in February 2018 (about 6-7 months after the demise of AlphaBay/Hansa) and soon became the leader of the Western darknet market ecosystem.
- During the same operation, police officers in Europe, South America, Asia, and the United States also seized more than 2 tonnes of drugs (including amphetamines, cocaine, ketamine, opioids, and cannabis), over €184 million ($207 million) in cash and cryptocurrency, and over 180 firearms.
- Domains for Archetyp have since been replaced with a seizure notice, which indicates law enforcement groups across Europe, in addition to the FBI and US Homeland Security, participated in the investigation.
- According to the indictment, financial transactions on Empire Market used cryptocurrency to conceal the nature of the transactions and the identities of Empire Market administrators, moderators, vendors, and buyers.
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The seizures, to which ICE Homeland Security Investigations significantly contributed, include more than $200 million in currency and digital assets, over two metric tons of drugs, comprised of 144 kilograms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, and over 180 firearms. In 2022, Abacus was used by 10% of the users on Western darknet markets. Archetyp Market, a site on the dark web that sold illegal drugs, has been shut down after police in Europe arrested its administrator. This also means that Operation Dark HunTor likely isn’t the final word on dark web arrests and that illicit marketplace vendors may have to proceed with a little more caution. When German police took down the dark web marketplace DarkMarket in January, they did more than shutter the largest underground online drug bazaar operating at that time. What remains to be seen is whether dark web drug buyers will simply find new suppliers, especially since Operation Disruptor targets individual vendors rather than entire marketplaces.
Interestingly, this vendor has also been a trusted supplier for OFAC-designated fentanyl traffickers Alex Adrianus Martinus Peijnenburg and Matthew Simon Grimm, having received close to $1.5 million in purchases from them. The vendor’s listing of a protonitazene analog boldly states that the compound has a potency 20x greater than that of fentanyl, as seen below. Due to the novelty of these substances (and the fact that many are analogs) the true number of overdoses in Europe could be higher, as forensic drug testing may lag behind the pace of the crisis. China-based precursor manufacturers mark the beginning of the synthetic drug supply chain. The vendor accepts BTC and XMR, and analyzing its on-chain exposure to regional CEXs and DNMs reveals that it serves customers worldwide, including in the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Russia.
“As law enforcement authorities gained access to the vendors’ extensive buyer lists, thousands of customers across the globe are now at risk of prosecution as well.” It seized 50.8 million euros ($53.4 million) in cash and virtual currencies, 850 kilograms of drugs, and 117 firearms were seized in a series of raids in several countries. The Wednesday arrests are the latest in the Justice Department’s ongoing JCODE efforts (Joint Criminal Opioid Darknet Enforcement) to address the growing number of illicit vendors operating on the darknet providing large quantities of harmful substances to thousands of people across the United States. Federal prosecutors brought similar charges against Rui-Siang Lin, who ran Incognito Market, “one of the largest narcotics marketplaces on the internet,” with him pleading guilty in December to narcotics conspiracy, money laundering, and selling misbranded medication. “This historic international seizure of firearms, deadly drugs, and illegal funds will save lives,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.
