US EditionDark Web’s Longest-Standing Drug Market Seized in Multinational Effort
EUROPE, JUN 16 – Authorities seized over $9 million in assets and shut down Archetyp Market, which had more than 600,000 users and $290 million in transactions over five years.
- On June 16, 2025, Europol announced the coordinated shutdown of Archetyp Market, a prominent online drug trading platform active across several European countries since May 2020.
- The takedown followed years of investigation called Operation Deep Sentinel, involving about 300 officers from Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, and Sweden working with US agencies.
- Authorities arrested a 30-year-old German administrator in Barcelona, a moderator, and six top vendors, seized the marketplace’s infrastructure in the Netherlands, and confiscated about $9 million in assets.
- Archetyp Market hosted over 600,000 users, 3,200 vendors, and 17,000 listings, including fentanyl and other potent substances, generating transaction volumes exceeding 250 million euros.
- Europol’s Deputy Director Jean-Philippe Lecouffe said the operation cuts off a major supply line and sends a clear message that there is no safe haven for those profiting from harm.
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This point of sale had been operating for five years and would have generated a volume of transactions close to 250 million euros.
In an international operation led by Europol and Eurojust, the administrator of the archetype platform was arrested and assets worth 7.8 million euros were seized.
One of the largest online drug sales platforms was launched by police, following an international survey. The site, located on Dark Web, has over 600,000 active users and has brought to the administrator, a German citizen, profits over 30 million euros. The international expansion operation involved offices in Romania, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Portugal and the United States of America.
The police have dismantled the largest online drug supermarket in Europe, known as Archetyp Market: a web-dark store selling heroin, ecstasy, speed, fentanyl, cocaine, cannabis and other synthetic drugs and running a 30-year-old German citizen from around Barcelona: on Wednesday he was arrested in the Catalan capital by special agents of the National Police. Continue reading...
Dark web’s longest-standing drug market seized in multinational effort
The longest-standing dark web drug market was taken down by European authorities last week with the aid of the United States. The site, known as Archetyp Market, had a total transaction volume of at least 250 million euros, or about $289 million, according to Europol.In a press release on Monday, June 16, Europol, the police agency of the European Union, announced the market’s dismantling after a years-long investigation dubbed “Operation Deep S…
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