Student Arrested in Germany For Running Largest Darknet Market

In Bavaria, a 22-year-old German student has been arrested recently by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) of Germany for allegedly operating one of the most extensive darknet marketplaces, ‘Deutschland im Deep Web‘ (DiDW).

In March 2022, the platform had already been shut down and by that time the portal was found to have the following key statistics:-

• 16,000 registered users
• 28,000 posts
• 72 high-volume sellers

In addition to being charged with running an illicit darknet marketplace, the suspect now faces a criminal charge, which could result in him being imprisoned for up to ten years.

For many years, the darknet marketplace has been a critical part of the cybercrime underground drug trade due to its use as a place to buy and sell drugs.

Anonymization and IT security have been core subjects of DiDW since it was launched in 2013 when it started as a forum. The number of registered users reached 23,000 in 2017 and the number of monthly visitors reached up to 6 million when the…