BERLIN: German authorities said Friday they took down the country’s largest Internet marketplace for narcotics and arrested 11 suspects from Germany, the Netherlands and Poland.
Police and prosecutors said in a statement that they worked for more than a year to smash Chemical Revolution, which sold amphetamines, cocaine, heroin, cannabis, ecstasy, LSD and other synthetic drugs.
Accepting Bitcoin payments, the site started operations in September 2017 and was allegedly run by a 26-year-old German man. He has been in custody since May.
The latest suspects arrested — eight Germans aged 24 to 35, two Poles aged 32 and 44 and a 43-year-old Dutchman — managed the acquisition, packaging, transport and distribution of the illicit wares.
The police operation made its first swoop in early 2018 with the arrest of a German man in the eastern state of Brandenburg found with a significant stash of drugs at his home.
Between February and May 2019, German investigators working with colleagues in Poland, the Netherlands, France and Spain arrested another 10 suspects.
The statement by authorities Friday did not provide information on the total amount of drugs sold on the site or its revenues before it was shut down.
In May, German authorities announced that they had dismantled the world’s second largest darknet market.
The “Wall Street Market” site traded in narcotics as well as stolen data, fake documents and malicious software.
The encrypted platform had more than one million customer accounts, over 5,000 registered sellers and more than 60,000 sales listings.
Investigators believe the operators of Chemical Revolution also sold drugs on Wall Street Market.
Police smash Germany’s biggest online drug market
Police smash Germany’s biggest online drug market
- Accepting Bitcoin payments, Chemical Revolution started operations in September 2017
- Internet marketplace sold amphetamines, cocaine, heroin, cannabis, ecstasy, LSD and other synthetic drugs
Germany plays down threat of US invading Greenland after talks
WASHINGTON: Germany’s top diplomat on Monday played down the risk of a US attack on Greenland, after President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to seize the island from NATO ally Denmark.
Asked after meeting Secretary of State Marco Rubio about a unilateral military move by Trump, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said: “I have no indication that this is being seriously considered.”
“Rather, I believe there is a common interest in addressing the security issues that arise in the Arctic region, and that we should and will do so,” he told reporters.
“NATO is only now in the process of developing more concrete plans on this, and these will then be discussed jointly with our US partners.”
Wadephul’s visit comes ahead of talks this week in Washington between Rubio and the top diplomats of Denmark and Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Trump in recent days has vowed that the United States will take Greenland “one way or the other” and said he can do it “the nice way or the more difficult way.”
Greenland’s government on Monday repeated that it would not accept a US takeover under “any circumstance.”
Greenland and NATO also said Monday that they were working on bolstering defense of the Arctic territory, a key concern cited by Trump.
Trump has repeatedly pointed to growing Arctic activity by Russia and China as a reason why the United States needs to take over Greenland.
But he has also spoken more broadly of his desire to expand the land mass controlled by the United States.
