German police, along with Europol, have shut down servers of a dark web marketplace and seized six figures in crypto from the arrested suspects, Europol announced on May 3. The Wall Street Market, reportedly the world’s second-largest dark web market, has been shut down by the German Federal Criminal Police under the authority of the German Public Prosecutor’s office. According to the report, German authorities arrested three suspects and seized over 550,000 euros ($615,000) in cash along with bitcoin (BTC) and monero (XMR) in six figure amounts (actual value unspecified) as well as several cars, computers, hard drives and other …

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance announced on April 23 that two men plead guilty for illicitly selling steroids and controlled substances and laundering millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies and Western Union payments. Callaway Crain, 35, and Mark Sanchez, also 35, were allegedly behind the darknet website “NextDayGear,” and also manufactured some of the substances they sold. Among their products were reportedly injectable and oral steroids, as well as medication to counteract the adverse effects of their use, including Xanax, Valium and Viagra. Per the announcement, the defendants shipped over 10,000 packages across the United States, generating over $2.3 million …

FBI agent Kyle Armstrong said the Bureau has 130 ongoing crypto-related cases, with dark web drug sales a particular concern, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, June 27. Speaking at the Crypto Evolved conference in New York on Wednesday, the supervisory special agent said the number represented “a small sliver,” of the FBI’s activities, which number “thousands of cases.” The agency has nonetheless noticed an increase in illegal activity facilitated by cryptocurrency payments, he said. The 130 “threat tagged” files related to crypto span a gamut of crimes, including human trafficking, kidnapping, ransomware attacks and illicit drug sales. This latter has become a …

U.S. law enforcement has seized $17 mln in Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies, and is seeking to seize about $24 mln more, from two Maryland, USA men, on charges of selling counterfeit drugs on the dark web, according to a Department of Justice (DoJ) press release published yesterday, June 26. In addition to around $17 million in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Law enforcement has seized $2.5 million in computer equipment, and over $1.5 million in cash. The government is further seeking to forfeit “no less than” $5.67 million, plus the value of 4,000 BTC (about $24 mln at press time), …

A US Homeland Security official has said Bitcoin is “a lot more legitimate” as dark web users move away from the virtual currency. Speaking in an interview with CNBC, the unnamed official said criminals were shying away from Bitcoin as law enforcement was “getting a lot better” at tracking them. "I think [Bitcoin]'s a lot more legitimate than people give it credit for," the official added. The issue of Bitcoin’s anonymity has long been a sticking point for illegitimate actors operating via the dark web, with more stealthy cryptocurrencies such as Monero seeing increasing numbers of Bitcoin refugees from the …