ng investigated for "operating criminal trading platforms on the internet on a commercial basis", the BKA said.Investigators do not know whether omg also has servers in other countries but "assume this was the main hub" of the network's infrastructure, a spokesman for Frankfurt prosecution service's internet crime office ZIT told AFP.Investigations into the illegal marketplace started in August 2021 and also involved several US authorities, according to the BKA.The "Bitcoin Bank Mixer" provided by the platform, a service for concealing digital transactions, had made investigations especially difficult, it added.The BKA said it had published a seizure banner on the marketplace's website.The secret "darknet" includes websites that can be accessed only with specific software or authorisations, ensuring anonymity for users.Such networks have faced increased pressure from international law enforcement after a boom in usage during the coronavirus pandemic.The United States, Russia, Ukraine and China dominate in terms of value both sent to and received from darknet markets, according to a 2021 report from blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis.omg accounted for 75 percent of sales in the global darknet market in 2020, the report said."omg is a big driver of Eastern Europe's unique crypto crime landscape. Eastern Europe has one of the highest rates of cryptocurrency transaction volume associated with criminal activity," it said.The marketplace had become particularly popular with users by developing creative delivery methods, the Chainalysis report added."omg has developed uniquely sophisticated operations, such as an Uber-like system for assigning drug deliveries to anonymous couriers, who drop off their packages in out-of-the-way, hidden public locations, commonly referred to as 'drops'," it said."That way, no physical exchange is made, and unlike with traditional darknet markets, vendors don't need to risk using the postal system."A German-led police sting also last year took down notorious darknet marketplace DarkMarket, which had nearly 500,000 users and more than 2,400 vendors worldwide.The marketplace had offered for sale "all kinds of drugs" as well as "counterfeit money, stolen and fake credit card data, anonymous SIM cards, malware and much more", prosecutors said.© 2022 AFP
