{"id":78181,"date":"2023-05-02T17:48:54","date_gmt":"2023-05-02T14:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=78181"},"modified":"2025-09-11T03:33:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T00:33:14","slug":"europol-shuts-down-darknet-marketplace-monopoly-market-and-seizes-cryptocurrency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/europol-shuts-down-darknet-marketplace-monopoly-market-and-seizes-cryptocurrency\/","title":{"rendered":"Europol shuts down darknet marketplace Monopoly Market and seizes cryptocurrency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Europol, the European Union&#8217;s law enforcement agency, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.europol.europa.eu\/media-press\/newsroom\/news\/288-dark-web-vendors-arrested-in-major-marketplace-seizure\">carried out an operation<\/a> to neutralise the international darknet marketplace Monopoly Market, arresting 288 suspects and seizing \u20ac50.8 million ($53.4 million) in cryptocurrency and cash.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the investigation, Europol cooperated with Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the United States and Switzerland.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the money, authorities seized 850 kg of synthetic drugs and 117 firearms.<\/p>\n<p>Law enforcement gathered intelligence based on a multitude of evidence uncovered after the closure of another darknet marketplace \u2014 Hydra. In April 2022, German police <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/german-police-confiscated-hydra-servers-and-seized-543-btc\">seized the platform&#8217;s servers and 543 BTC<\/a>, and the U.S. Treasury <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/hydra-and-the-garantex-cryptocurrency-exchange-sanctioned-by-the-united-states\">imposed sanctions against it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>According to updated Europol data, the Hydra closure yielded \u20ac23 million in digital assets for the authorities. <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;A coalition of law enforcement on three continents shows that we are all achieving greater success when we work together. This operation sends dark-web criminals a clear signal \u2014 international law enforcement has the means and the ability to identify you and hold you accountable for your illegal actions,&#8221; the press release said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Earlier in April 2023, a U.S. court <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/us-resident-sentenced-to-one-year-and-one-day-for-silk-road-fraud-involving-50000-btc\">sentenced<\/a> Georgia resident James Zhong to one year and one day in prison for the theft of 50,000 BTC from the Silk Road darknet marketplace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Europol, the European Union police service, carried out an operation to neutralise the international darknet marketplace Monopoly Market, arresting 288 suspects and seizing \u20ac50.8 million ($53.4 million) in cryptocurrency and cash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":78182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1153,477,733,1444],"class_list":["post-78181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-confiscation","tag-darknet","tag-europe","tag-law-enforcement"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"22","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78183,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78181\/revisions\/78183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}