Finnish Customs dismantled the dark web drugs market Sipulitie

Finnish Customs shut down the Tor darknet marketplace Sipulitie and seized the servers hosting the platform.

Finnish Customs, with the help of Europol, Swedish and Polish law enforcement authorities and researchers at Bitdefender, shut down the Tor marketplace Sipulitie.

“Finnish customs has closed the web servers of the Sipulitie marketplace, which has been operating on the Tor network since 2023, in cooperation with the Swedish police, and confiscated their contents. The site was used for criminal purposes, such as selling narcotics anonymously.” reads the Finnish Customs’s announcement.

The darknet market has been active since February 2023, it was used by criminals to sell narcotics anonymously.

Finnish Customs also identified the main operator, moderators, and users of the marketplaces and is going to arrest them.

The administrator of Sipulitie said in public forums that turnover on its market was 1.3 million euros.

“At the Finnish customs, we have effectively and with many different means intervened in criminal activities taking place on the dark web over the years. The smooth cooperation of the authorities at both the national and international level is a key factor in the fight against online crime” said Director of Supervision Hannu Sinkkonen from the Finnish Customs.

Sipulitie was launched in February 2023 after the seizure of its predecessor, Sipulimarket, which earned over €2 million. The same admin later launched a chat-based drug sales platform, Tsätti, in 2022, which was taken offline along with Sipulitie.

“The investigation into Sipulitie and related platforms is ongoing, with more details expected to emerge in the coming months. Authorities have already identified key figures behind the operation, including site administrators and individuals involved in supporting roles.” said Bitdefender. “Additionally, several users of the marketplace, including buyers and sellers, have been identified based on seized material.”

In early October, the Dutch police announced the success of a new joint law enforcement operation that led to the shutdown of the dual dark web marketplace Bohemia/Cannabia. These are two of the largest and longest-running dark web platforms for the trade of illegal goods, drugs, and cybercrime services.

Law enforcement agencies from the United Kingdom, United States, and Ireland participated in the operation that began towards the end of 2022.

The Bohemia marketplace ceased operations in late 2023 due to service disruptions, while its members suspected an exit scams of a rogue developer. At the time of its shut down, Bohemia hosted 82,000 daily ads and handled around 67,000 transactions monthly, with a turnover of €12 million in September 2023 alone.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Sipulitie)