Darknet Vendor Faces “Many Years” for 3,700 Sales

In July 2016, a postal office in lower Franconia intercepted a package of suspected narcotics. They forwarded the information and package to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). Then, over a significant period of time and “with great effort,” the BKA made serious headway in the investigation. They traced the package to a house wherein they found 600 grams of amphetamine, 300 grams of meth, 200 grams of cocaine, and 100 grams of heroin.

The premises searched were connected to a 30-year-old man, a 57-year-old man, and 19-year-old woman. In addition to the cache of substances, law enforcement found the standard setup for a darknet vendor that moved weight in the aforementioned quantities. Hard drives, cell phones, and notebooks files with incriminating documentation.

Police discovered that the eldest of the three, the 55-year-old, was the father of the 30-year-old. The 30-year-old, in turn, was the 19-year-old’s boyfriend. The BKA ceased the investigation into the father but pursued the other two suspects. At a recent court appearance, the prosecution accused the duo of selling drugs on the darknet. After a forensic analysis of the hard drives, investigators discovered that the suspects sold on the darknet and the clearnet as well.

The 30-year-old suspect sold on a clearnet site called “finestdrugs.to” and, of course, the famed Dream marketplace. Between the two, the investigators proved 3,700 individual sales or shipments. Of those 3,700 cases, investigators determined that 329 of them involved large quantities of narcotics. They found that the vendor sold 17 different types of drugs. Additionally, via customer feedback, investigators found that he sold “five kilograms of amphetamine; Nearly 1.5 kilograms of marijuana; 1.4 kilograms Hashish; 400 grams of cocaine, and 300 grams of heroin.”

Prosecutors told the court that “the frequency of the actions and the enormous gain gained in the process make it clear that the suspects have spent long periods of time in order to finance their costly lifestyle.” Investigators are currently working on finding the supplier further up the food chain, an LKA officer explained. Furthermore, relevant law enforcement parties began the follow-up procedures both locally and in external regions.

The 30-year-old also fell into a cybercrime investigation when forensic analysts found evidence that he sent millions of phishing emails to internet users worldwide. “He copied hundreds of databases of web shops from medium-sized companies,” an investigator explained. “In millions of cases (more than seven million records), he gained account access information from customers of large Internet marketplaces and e-payment providers, web shops of medium-sized companies and credit card data.”

So far, on the cybercrime front, police investigators found nine million email accounts, 10,500 PayPal accounts, 4,500 Amazon accounts, 2,300 eBay accounts, 12,000 eBay classified ads accounts and 580 DHL Packstation accounts.

While the investigation is far from complete, prosecutors said the vendor would serve “many years” because his crimes dated back to 2014.