Finnish Authorities Seized Sipulimarket
Finnish Customs, in conjunction with Europol and Polish authorities, seized the last Finnish language darkweb market.
On December 11, Finnish Customs (Tulli) shut down the last darkweb market for Tor users in Finland. Tulli, working with the Polish Provincial Police Headquarters in Wroclaw and Europol, seized the Sipulimarket servers as well as Bitcoin associated with the market.
A new seizure banner reads:
THIS HIDDEN SERVICE HAS BEEN CLOSED
by the Finnish Customs in conjunction with the Cybercrime Department of Provincial Police Headquarters in Wrocław with the support of Europol and Eurojust for aggravated narcotics offenses.
Sipulimarket allowed users to buy and sell “drugs and other illegal commodities,” according to the press release. By all standards, Sipulimarket was a standard darkweb marketplace. It launched in 2019.
In early 2019, Finnish customs seized Silkkitie (Valhalla). In early 2018, they seized Sipulikanava, a Tor-based imageboard that facilitated the sale of contraband.
Europol, in its announcement about the Sipulimarket takedown, described their assistance as “operational support and technical expertise.” They also took responsibility for hosting the seizure banner visible to anyone visiting the Sipulimarket onion service. BitDefender, a “global cybersecurity leader,” advised Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre during the investigation.
Finnish Customs is still investigating the market (likely market staff and users) and will not be providing additional information “at this stage.”
The Sipulimarket homepage: sipuli7oouf7gupegfhxskhzg3yq5ifzz2vpljy3karyyrhybzs2tgid.onion