The success of the operation demonstrates the importance of international cooperation in the battle against recent cybercrime and drug smuggling. The operation was carried out between June and involved German, Dutch, Romanian, Spanish, and Swedish officials with the support of Europol and Eurojust. Around 300 officers participated in coordinated raids, targeting the most senior leaders of the platform and closing down its technological platform. You can report link issues by clicking the “Report Issue” button on any link details page. To suggest a new link for inclusion, please use our contact form. Please include the full .onion URL and any relevant information about the service.
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Threat actors generally rely on it for its anonymous nature, which often enables them to run illicit schemes. Payments are only processed through Monero (XMR), ensuring that your financial transactions remain fully anonymous. We never store or share any personal information without explicit consent. The data will soon be able to be downloaded, I will enable the export of HTML / Plaintext (with BBCode) so the knowledge can be archived in case this market goes down. It’s encouraged by us to create backups and maybe even host backups of it. Take the HTML and setup a clone, update once every week / month and you will help the darknet community a lot.
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The site’s technical infrastructure, hosted in the Netherlands, was dismantled. Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, Europol Deputy Executive Director of Operations, emphasized the broader significance of the takedown. “Thanks to this takedown, law enforcement has dismantled one of the dark web’s oldest-standing drug marketplaces, cutting off a substantial supply chain for some of the world’s deadliest drugs,” he stated. Archetyp Market was now a serious criminal business, with more than 600,000 users globally and processing at least €250 million in transactions. More than 17,000 listings of drugs were on the site, which was one of the largest dark web marketplaces of its type. Archetyp was more than just the next online drug market to fall, having absorbed much of the vendor traffic displaced by earlier market closures.
It should force us to think about where harm is really happening online and whether current strategies are looking in the wrong direction. Accessing Archetyp Market involves several key steps to ensure both security and privacy. Users must first install the Tor browser, which is available for multiple operating systems including iOS, Mac, Windows, and Android. This browser allows users to reach Archetyp through its onion address, a unique URL that is only accessible within the Tor network.
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Keep JavaScript disabled when possible and never install additional browser extensions. While enforcement has begun moving upstream – going after technical providers, financial flows and crypto tracing – the system’s adaptability continues to outpace disruption. Until these enablers are addressed, each enforcement success risks becoming just another prelude to the next.
- Around 300 officers participated in coordinated raids, targeting the most senior leaders of the platform and closing down its technological platform.
- Always verify onion URLs using PGP signatures when available.
- Platform shutdowns can disrupt logistics, lead to arrests and seize goods, but they do not break apart the dark web’s recovery architecture.
- The BKA also said 20 additional properties were searched, mainly targeting Archtetyp moderators and vendors.
Archetyp: In Depth On One Of The World’s Largest Darknet Marketplaces
Last week, one of the dark web’s most prominent drug marketplaces – Archetyp – was shut down in an international, multi-agency law enforcement operation following years of investigations. It was touted as a major policing win and was accompanied by a slick cyberpunk-themed video. Investigations into Archetyp revealed that its creator and current administrator is a German national residing in Spain. International cooperation between authorities, financial tracking and digital evidence analysis led to the identification of the people behind Archetyp. Investigators discovered the location of the servers, moderators and vendors on the marketplace. A coordinated action week was planned to dismantle Archetyp and arrest those responsible for selling and operating the platform, under the coordination of Eurojust and Europol.
- €7.8 million ($9 million) was seized from Archetyp’s biggest vendor alone.
- According to TRM Labs, cryptocurrency-enabled online drug sales grew by more than 19% from 2023 to 2024, reaching nearly USD 2.4 billion in total volume.
- More than a marketplace, Archetyp is a philosophy manifested through digital precision.
- Learn how to properly install, configure, and use the Tor Browser for maximum privacy and security when accessing onion services.
- On the action days, Europol deployed a dark web specialist to Germany and set up a virtual command post to coordinate field activities and ensure real-time deconfliction across jurisdictions.
Dark Web’s Longest-standing Drug Market Seized In Multinational Effort
Unlike some competitors, Archetyp market does not host illegal content directly on its servers; instead, it acts as a secure marketplace for peer-to-peer transactions. Vendor bonds are required to sell, filtering out low-effort scammers, and all communications on Archetyp Market are end-to-end encrypted via PGP. The Archetyp Market drug marketplace has been targeted by law enforcement in an operation involving takedowns and arrests.
While Archetyp was only used to buy and sell drugs, law enforcement has targeted several marketplaces in recent months that also offered cybercrime tools and services. The list of targeted dark web markets included Nemesis, BlackDB.cc and BidenCash. Europol announced on Monday that Archetyp Market, one of the longest-running dark web drug marketplaces, has been targeted by law enforcement in an international operation. The raid represents more than another marketplace closure it shows law enforcement’s growing capacity for infiltrating and dismantling sophisticated criminal operations that live in the virtual darkness. By disrupting technical infrastructure and leading personnel simultaneously, authorities circumvented the common scenario whereby criminal syndicates simply relocate and resume operations elsewhere. What put Archetyp most at risk was that it was willing to permit the sale of fentanyl and other extremely powerful synthetic opioids drugs that most other darknet markets had already banned as too lethal.
Archetyp Dark Web Market Seized, Admin Arrested In Spain
When Archetyp, one of the largest and oldest dark web drug markets, was dismantled in June 2025, the authorities framed it as a ‘severe blow’ to European organized crime. But as with previous takedowns, although the platform disappeared, its users quickly dispersed and regrouped across rival markets and forums. Open-source intelligence gathered in the aftermath shows how the dark web infrastructure responded and what this reveals about its resilience. The platform quickly gained popularity due to its robust security measures, including encrypted communications, PGP-based transactions, and Monero (XMR) payments. This made it a go-to marketplace for many users in the dark web community, providing an anonymous, safe, and secure environment for users to conduct transactions.
European Authorities Disrupt Top Drug Marketplace, Arrest Leader
The infrastructure was dismantled in the Netherlands, while arrests spanned Germany, Spain, and Sweden, including the suspected administrator—a 30-year-old German national arrested in Barcelona. Other key figures, such as moderators and top vendors, were also apprehended. Archetyp had built a global user base exceeding 600,000 and facilitated transactions worth at least 250 million euros. Investigators say it was one of the few dark web markets to allow the sale of fentanyl and other powerful synthetic opioids, contributing to the wider threat of overdose and illicit drug circulation across Europe and elsewhere.
Archetyp Market’s site now displays a seizure notice and authorities published a video depicting the disruptive operation. Grab a link or mirror, fire up Tor, and step into Archetyp Market. Our support crew or 60,000+ users in the forums have your back. But those of us who have studied this space for years weren’t surprised. But shutdowns like this have become a recurring feature of the dark web.
While few details have emerged about the other arrests, dark web users quickly began to analyze the now-removed official video of the operation released by the BKA. Authorities also moved against one moderator and six of the platform’s top vendors in Germany and Sweden. Investigators seized assets valued at 7.8 million euros, which include both cryptocurrency and physical property. The BKA also said 20 additional properties were searched, mainly targeting Archtetyp moderators and vendors. In total, police seized 47 smartphones, 45 computers, as well as narcotics and other assets, which will be analyzed for further investigative leads. Launched in 2020, Archetyp was Europe’s longest-serving drug market at the time of its takedown last week, and authorities today confirmed a number of key arrests.
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Archetyp may be gone, but the features that drove its success are already being carried forward by others. Archetyp’s use of Monero cryptocurrency highlights the challenges authorities face in tracking financial flows on the darknet. Monero’s privacy features make tracing transactions notoriously difficult, adding complexity to investigations. Yet, the successful seizure of infrastructure and key individuals proves that no system is invulnerable to coordinated, cross-border law enforcement efforts.
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The €250 million transaction volume and the seizure details align with official reports. The arrests and infrastructure seizures substantiate the effectiveness of Operation Deep Sentinel. However, the darknet’s elusive nature means some data on users and exact sales volumes could be underreported.
