darknet

In January 2021, German and American law enforcement dismantled DarkMarket — an illegal darknet marketplace with more than 500,000 users and transactions worth billions. The operation ended with the arrest of the platform's administrator and the seizure of its servers. It was considered the largest darknet marketplace takedown in history at the time.

German and Danish authorities shut down DarkMarket, the world's largest illegal darknet marketplace. The platform had over 500,000 users and generated approximately 140 million euros in annual cryptocurrency transactions.

A mother and her partner were convicted in 2018 in one of Germany's most shocking cases of child sexual abuse, having systematically abused and rented out the woman's young son to pedophiles via the dark web. The case shocked Germany when it was uncovered in September 2017 in the small town of Staufen im Breisgau in southwestern Germany. Both perpetrators received lengthy prison sentences, and the case prompted national debate about how social services failed to detect warning signs.