Silk Road
Seized by FBIThe original darknet market, pioneered the escrow model. Ross Ulbricht arrested in a San Francisco library. Relaunched as Silk Road 2.0 by former staff, then also seized in November 2014.
Law Enforcement Operations
Darknet markets seized or shut down by law enforcement. Includes Silk Road (FBI, 2013), AlphaBay (Europol/FBI, 2017), Hansa Market (Dutch Police, 2017), and Hydra (BKA/DEA, 2022).
6 markets documented
AlphaBay
Seized by Europol/FBIThe largest darknet market of its era, processing $600K–$800K/day before seizure. Operator Alexandre Cazes arrested in Thailand and found dead in his cell 1 week later.
Hansa Market
Seized by Dutch Police (covert operation)Dutch police secretly ran Hansa for a month after taking it over, harvesting 10,000+ buyer credentials and shipping addresses. Considered one of the most sophisticated LE operations in darknet history.
Hydra Market
Seized by German BKA/DEAThe largest Russian-language darknet market in history. Served Russia/CIS exclusively. Brought down in a joint German-US operation that seized 543 BTC and servers in Germany.
DarkMarket
Seized by EuropolThe largest darknet market in the world at the time of its seizure. Europol-led operation in January 2021 took down the platform, arrested the alleged operator near the German-Danish border, and seized over 20 servers in Moldova and Ukraine.
Valhalla (Silkkitie)
Seized by Finnish Customs / EuropolThe largest Finnish-language darknet market, also known as Silkkitie. Seized by Finnish Customs as part of Operation DisrupTor's precursor investigations, with coordination from Europol and the DEA.