Resurrected ‘Crimenetwork’ Marketplace Taken Down, Administrator Arrested

The German police last week announced the shutdown of the second iteration of the Crimenetwork crime marketplace. Crimenetwork was taken down in December 2024, after more than 12 years of operation, and a suspected administrator was arrested. Days later, the German-speaking online marketplace was resurrected on newly built infrastructure, and has since grown to have over 22,000 users and more than 100 sellers. The majority of the marketplace’s users are likely German speakers, the police said. The same as the original, which had over 100,000 buyers and 100 sellers, the resurrected Crimenetwork allowed criminals to trade various illegal goods and services, including stolen information, drugs, and falsified documents. Transactions were made in cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Monero, and evidence secured by law enforcement suggests Crimenetwork was generating more than €3.6 million (over $4.2 million) in revenue. When taken down in December 2024, the original Crimenetwork was considered the largest German-speaking crime marketplace. Investigators estimated at the time that over $100 million in cryptocurrency was transferred through the platform between 2018 and 2024. The police also announced that a 35-year-old German citizen suspected of being the administrator of the marketplace was arrested in Mallorca by the Spanish authorities. Law enforcement also seized €194,000 (approximately $228.000) in assets directly linked to Crimenetwork. Additionally, the investigators seized “extensive user and transaction data”, which will be analyzed to gain further insight into the criminal structures behind the platform, the German police said. Related: Romanian Man Extradited to US for Role in Hacking Scheme 17 Years Ago Related: Karakurt Ransomware Negotiator Sentenced to Prison Related: Worries About AI’s Risks to Humanity Loom Over the Trial Pitting Musk Against OpenAI’s Leaders Related: Tycoon 2FA Loses Phishing Kit Crown Amid Surge in Attacks WRITTEN BY Ionut Arghire Ionut Arghire is an international correspondent for SecurityWeek. More from Ionut Arghire Over 500 Organizations Hit in Years-Long Phishing Campaign AI Firm Braintrust Prompts API Key Rotation After Data Breach ‘PCPJack’ Worm Removes TeamPCP Infections, Steals Credentials Vulnerability in Claude Extension for Chrome Exposes AI Agent to Takeover Boost Security Raises $4 Million for SDLC Defense Platform Chrome 148 Rolls Out With 127 Security Fixes Vendor Says Daemon Tools Supply Chain Attack Contained Cisco Patches High-Severity Vulnerabilities in Enterprise Products Latest News Build Application Firewalls Aim to Stop the Next Supply Chain Attack Google Detects First AI-Generated Zero-Day Exploit Skoda Data Breach Hits Online Shop Customers Cloudflare Lays Off 1,100 Employees in AI-Driven Restructuring SailPoint Discloses GitHub Repository Hack Checkmarx Jenkins AST Plugin Compromised in Supply Chain Attack Canvas System Is Online After a Cyberattack Disrupted Thousands of Schools New ‘Dirty Frag’ Linux Vulnerability Possibly Exploited in Attacks Trending Webinar: ROSI For CPS Security Programs May 13, 2026 In cyber-physical systems (CPS), just one hour of downtime can outweigh an entire annual security budget. Learn how to master the Return on Security Investment (ROSI) to align security goals with the bottom-line priorities. Register Virtual Event: Threat Detection And Incident Response Summit May 20, 2026 Delve into big-picture strategies to reduce attack surfaces, improve patch management, conduct post-incident forensics, and tools and tricks needed in a modern organization. Register People on the Move Malwarebytes has named Chung Ip as Chief Financial Officer. Semperis has appointed John Podboy as Chief Information Security Officer. Randy Menon has become Chief Product and Marketing Officer at One Identity. More People On The Move Expert Insights The Mythos Moment: Enterprises Must Fight Agents With Agents Only with the right platform and an agentic, AI-driven defense, will enterprises be able to protect themselves in the agentic era. (Etay Maor) Why Cybersecurity Must Rethink Defense In The Age Of Autonomous Agents From autonomous code generation to decision-making systems that initiate actions without human intervention, the industry is entering a new phase. (Torsten George) Government Can’t Win The Cyber War Without The Private Sector Securing national resilience now depends on faster, deeper partnerships with the private sector. (Steve Durbin) The Hidden ROI Of Visibility: Better Decisions, Better Behavior, Better Security Beyond monitoring and compliance, visibility acts as a powerful deterrent, shaping user behavior, improving collaboration, and enabling more accurate, data-driven security decisions. (Joshua Goldfarb) The New Rules Of Engagement: Matching Agentic Attack Speed The cybersecurity response to AI-enabled nation-state threats cannot be incremental. It must be architectural. (Nadir Izrael) Flipboard Reddit Whatsapp Email