Cops Shutter Rebooted German Language Cybercrime Market

Cybercrime , Fraud Management & Cybercrime Cops Shutter Rebooted German Language Cybercrime Market Spanish Police Bust German Accused of Relaunching 'Crimenetwork' Cybercrime Forum Mathew J. Schwartz (euroinfosec) • May 11, 2026     Share Post Share Credit Eligible Get Permission The Mediterranean island of Mallorca, where a German cybercrime suspect allegedly hid out for years under false identities. (Image: Shutterstock) Spanish police arrested a suspected cybercrime forum mastermind accused of hiding out on the sunny western Mediterranean island of Mallorca. See Also: Why Cyberattackers Love 'Living Off the Land' The 35-year-old German national, who police haven't named, was arrested Wednesday at his residence on the island as part of an internationally coordinated operation, based in part on a European arrest warrant issued by Germany's Cybercrime Center, a part of Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office, the BKA. The BKA described the suspect as "one of the alleged leading figures in the German-speaking underground economy." He's charged with building and administering a brand-new version of German-language cybercrime forum Crimenetwork. The new version, backed by "a completely new technical infrastructure," launched days after police in December 2024 shut down the previous version and arrested its suspected administrator (see: Police Shutter Largest German-Speaking Criminal Marketplace). The suspect, originally from Germany's Ruhr area, faces further charges, including "trafficking in narcotics in not insignificant quantities," and running a network of fraudulent e-commerce sites that preyed on consumers. Police say he hid out in Mallorca for several years, using false identities. Crimenetwork has been a fixture of the German-speaking underworld for more than a decade. Launched in 2012, the forum was a clearinghouse for stolen data, drugs and forged documents. When authorities first seized its servers in late 2024, they said it sported more than 100,000 users and 100 sellers. In March, a judge in Germany sentenced the alleged operator of the first version of Crimenetwork to serve seven years and 10 months in prison, and ordered 10 million euros - $11.8 million - in ill-gotten gains to be confiscated. "The relaunch of the platform offered a similarly wide range of illegal goods and services, including stolen data, drugs, and forged documents. The relaunch most recently boasted over 22,000 users and more than 100 vendors," the BKA said. In the 16 months of the latest Crimenetwork's operation, police said the platform, which accepted such cryptocurrencies as Bitcoin, Litecoin and Monero, appeared to generate more than 3.6 million euros - $4.2 million - in revenue, with the platform operator receiving a cut of every transaction. Police said they seized about $228,000 in assets. Police said they obtained data about users and their transactions, most located in German-speaking countries, "providing valuable leads for further investigating the criminal structures behind the platform." They created a retro-looking website, www.bustedagaincrime.network, which they said is "aimed at former users of the recently shut-down trading platform." Beyond running Crimenetwork, the suspect allegedly defrauded approximately 1,000 Germans through a network of 42 different, fake online shops - each with its own domain name - from March 2023 through January 2025. Victims lost at least 323,000 euros - $380,000 - to the sites, which instructed them to pay by sending funds to foreign bank accounts, said the Karlsruhe Public Prosecutor's Office and the Offenburg and Reutlingen Police headquarters in a joint press release. "The funds received in these accounts were then transferred onward and frequently converted into cryptocurrencies to conceal their origin," they said. Police said "the suspect was identified primarily through technical investigations" and that they're also targeting two other suspects, both German nationals. As part of the investigation, last week they searched "several properties in Germany" and seized "numerous electronic data storage devices," which will be analyzed by digital forensic investigators, they said.