World’s Largest Darknet Marketplace Shuts Down!

According to prosecutors, Hydra Market enabled users to sell and buy illegal drugs, fraudulent identification documents, and stolen financial data. The platform also offered money-laundering services to its users. According to a cybercrime research firm, Elliptic, these products were advertised for sale in Russian-speaking nations, including Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan. 

How did it all start?

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Federal prosecutors in San Francisco have filed criminal drugs and money laundering charges against Dmitry Olegovich Pavlov. The 30-year-old resident of Russia, Pavlov, is described as the site’s alleged administrator. The DOJ claimed it had obtained an indictment against Pavlov for conspiracy to commit money laundering and distribute narcotics.

In late 2015, Pavlov operated a company that would administrate Hydra’s servers. The company would allow the marketplace to be used by thousands of unlawful vendors and drug dealers to distribute large quantities of illicit services and goods. This is also to launder billions of dollars collected from unlawful transactions on the Hydra Market.

The most-traded illegal drugs included cocaine, methamphetamines, LSD and heroin. In 2020 alone, this darknet market witnessed nearly $1.34 billion U.S. dollars (1.23 billion euros) sales.

Buyers rated sellers in a five-star range, and the rating was displayed on the site with customer reviews. According to German officials, Hydra Market has nearly 17 million buyer accounts and over 19,000 sales accounts.

Hydra Market was an Amazon-dot-com of the dark web.

Investigations started in August 2021 and several U.S. authorities. Many U.S. agencies, including the IRS Criminal Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, and more, were involved in the operation.

“The Department of Justice will not allow darknet markets and cryptocurrency to be a haven for money laundering and the sale of hacking tools and services,” says Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said that the work is far from over. There is a lot to be done. 

“We will continue to work alongside our international and interagency partners to disrupt and dismantle darknet markets and hold those who commit their crimes on the dark web accountable for their acts,” Garland stated.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the global threats of ransomware and cybercrime on the dark web are deeply concerning to the U.S. This German-US operation sends a clear message to criminals that they cannot hide on the darknet in Russia or anywhere else in the world.

Nowadays, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is consistently monitoring efforts to violate Russia-related sanctions. This also includes monitoring the use of virtual currency. It’s committed to protecting the country against violations and promoting compliance.