Authorities shut down Wall Street Market and Valhalla, arrest key people involved

• European and US authorities arrested three German nationals and a Brazilian man involved in moderating Wall Street Market.
• The dark web marketplaces were known for selling a number of illegal goods, particularly drugs.

Wall Street Market (WSM) and Valhalla, two prominent dark web marketplaces have been taken down by authorities from Europe and the US. These marketplaces primarily sold drugs, counterfeit goods, and malware.

Three German nationals who were involved with WSM were also arrested by the authorities. The takedown comes after WSM ‘exit-scammed’ its users and vendors of $14.2 million in cryptocurrency. Likewise, Valhalla, also known as Silkkitie, was shut down by Europol.

Key highlights

• Servers of WSM and Valhalla were seized by authorities in Germany and Finland respectively.
• The three persons alleged to be behind WSM were also apprehended by law officials from Germany, the US, and the Netherlands.
• A Brazilian man who went by the name Med3l1n on the WSM forum was also under arrest. He threatened to expose information of WSM users who did not have their details encrypted and demanded a BTC of 0.05.
• Finnish Customs (Tulli), on the other hand, took down Valhalla (Silkkitie). This dark web platform was one of the oldest marketplaces to exist.

Cash, computers and other evidence recovered

In a press release, Europol highlighted the evidence it found following the shutdown of the marketplaces.

“This operation lead by the German authorities has seen the arrest of three suspects and as part of the house searches carried out, the police officers seized over €550 000 in cash, alongside cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Monero in 6-digit amounts, several vehicles and other evidence, such as computers and data storage. In the US, during the investigation by the Attorney General in Los Angeles, two of the highest-selling suppliers of narcotics were arrested,” Europol stated in its press release.