- U.S. and German officials have seized the so-called world’s largest and most prominent darknet market, which traffics in illicit goods and services.
- In 2021, Hydra accounted for an estimated 80% of all darknet market-related cryptocurrency transactions, and since 2015, the marketplace has received approximately $5.2 billion in cryptocurrency.
- The Hydra Market’s servers were shut down, and German police confiscated cryptocurrency wallets containing $25 million worth of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC).
- The U.S. Department of Justice announced criminal charges against Dmitry Pavlov, a 30-year-old Russian resident, for conspiracy to distribute narcotics and conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with his operation and administration of Hydra’s servers.
- Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against Hydra Market and a “ransomware-enabling” virtual currency called Garantex, which primarily operates out of Russia.
- Hydra allegedly offered a wide variety of illegal goods and services to mainly Russian-speaking countries.
- Its wares included hacking software, fake IDs, and illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and LSD, openly advertised on the site.
- Garantex, the virtual currency exchange, was founded in 2019 and initially registered in Estonia. According to U.S. officials, most of its operations are now carried out in Moscow, writes Bloomberg.
- The officials said that more than $100 million in Garantex transactions were associated with illicit actors and darknet markets, including $6 million from the notorious Russian ransomware gang Conti and about $2.6 million from Hydra Market.
- Photo by ski-life via Pixabay
