Crimenetwork relaunch takedown

BKA and ZIT shut down the relaunched Crimenetwork darknet marketplace; suspected German operator arrested in Mallorca on a European Arrest Warrant

A special unit of the Spanish National Police arrested the suspected 35-year-old German operator of the relaunched Crimenetwork marketplace at his residence in Mallorca under a European Arrest Warrant, in an operation with Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and the Frankfurt am Main Public Prosecutor's Office's Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT); he is accused under Section 127 of the German Criminal Code of operating criminal trading platforms, and of narcotics trafficking (Help Net Security, 2026-05-11). Authorities say he built new infrastructure for Crimenetwork a few days after the previous version was shut down and its administrator arrested in December 2024; the BKA calls the marketplace one of the central marketplaces of the German-speaking underground economy for many years (Help Net Security, 2026-05-11). The relaunched platform offered stolen data, drugs, forged documents and other illegal services to more than 22,000 users and over 100 vendors, took payment in Bitcoin, Litecoin and Monero and earned an estimated more than €3.6 million in commissions and vendor fees; about €194,000 in assets were preliminarily seized (Help Net Security, 2026-05-11).