Darknet marketplace ‘Sipultie’, which allowed the sale of illegal narcotics by anonymous users, has been shut down. The seizure was a joint effort between Finnish Customs, Europol, Swedish police, Polish law enforcement agencies and cybersecurity researchers.
The site in its current form has been operational since February 2023, when it replaced its predecessor ‘Sipulimarket’, which was shut down by the FBI in December 2020 – but not before earning more than €2 million. The raid also reportedly identified moderators of a separate but similar platform, Tsätti.
Law enforcement authorities have confirmed that the network servers for ‘Sipulty’ have been seized and the Tor website has been shut down, but their investigation is still ongoing.
A cat and mouse game
Authorities added that they have identified the marketplace’s main operator, moderators and users, so arrest announcements are likely to follow soon.
“During the investigation, the identities of the managers of Sipulitie, Sipulimarket and Tsätti were discovered,” Finnish Customs reports.
“The identities of moderators and customer service representatives supporting the administration have also been revealed. With the help of the seized material, drug sellers and buyers active on Sipulitie have also been identified.”
While not quite Silk Road, this will likely be a significant disruption to the darknet drug landscape – and it’s not the only marketplace to close in recent times. In 2022, the The world’s largest dark web marketplace, Hydra, was taken offline by German law enforcement.
Hydra had more than 17 million customers worldwide and had revenues of more than $1.35 billion in 2020 alone, so its closure likely scared users and diversified the landscape somewhat.
Two other marketplaces, ‘Incognito Market’ and ‘Bohemia’, closed in 2024, so it appears law enforcement has some momentum for now and may even have the upper hand.
Via BleepingComputer