Darknet marketplace ‘Sipultie’, which facilitated the sale of illegal narcotics by anonymous users, has been shut down. The seizure was a collaborative effort between Finnish customs, Europol, Swedish police, Polish law enforcement, and cybersecurity researchers.
The site in its current form had been operational since February 2023, when it replaced its predecessor ‘Sipulimarket’, which was shut down by feds in December 2020 - but not before it made over €2 million. Moderators from a separate but similar platform, Tsätti, were also reportedly identified in the raid.
Law enforcement agencies confirmed that the network servers for ‘Sipultie’ were seized and the Tor website shut down, but their investigation is still ongoing.
A cat and mouse game
Authorities added that they have identified the main operator, moderators, and users of the marketplace, so arrests announcements will likely be coming soon.
“During the investigation, the identities of the administrators of Sipulitie, Sipulimarket, and Tsätti have been discovered,” announced Finnish Customs.
“The identities of moderators and customer service agents supporting the administration have also been uncovered. Using the seized material, drug sellers and buyers operating on Sipulitie have also been identified.”
Although not quite Silk Road, this is likely to be a significant disruption to the darknet drug landscape - and it's not the only marketplace taken down in recent times. In 2022, the world’s largest dark web marketplace, Hydra, was taken down by German Law enforcement.
Hydra boasted over 17 million customers worldwide, and a turnover over $1.35 billion in 2020 alone, so its closure likely spooked users and diversified the landscape somewhat.
Two other marketplaces, ‘Incognito Market’ and ‘Bohemia’ have been shut down in 2024, so it looks like law enforcement have some momentum and potentially even the upper hand, for now.
Via BleepingComputer
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