Ever since the Munich shooting took place, German law officials have taken an aggressive stance towards illegal arms dealers. The vast majority of this activity takes place on the deep web, where Berlin police arrested one individual for purchasing a shotgun and ammunition. Whether or not a new crisis has been averted, remains to be seen, but the online weapons business has come under fire.
Berlin Police Arrest Deep Web Weapons Buyer
One of the obvious questions is why anyone would purchase a shotgun and ammunition off the deep web. Is it to bypass strict gun control regulation? Possibly. But people looking to avoid that paperwork usually buy weapons for illicit reasons. For now, that also seems to be the case where this deep web buyer is concerned.
The German Federal Police – also known as BKA – busted a 33-year-old German deep web user just over a week ago. Details were scarce to come by at first, but it appears this person in question frequented the deep web on a regular basis. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, even though the purchase of illegal weapons raises a lot of questions.
It appears this arrest is a direct result of Operation Hyperion, an international darknet investigation conducted two weeks ago. During that operation, a lot of darknet vendors and buyers were identified across platforms all over the world. Given the Munich shooting incident not too long ago, anyone buying weapons from the deep web raises a lot of suspicion.
So far, several dozens of arrests have been carried out in Germany over the past few months. This latest arrest is one of the few related to weapon trafficking, though. Drugs are still the biggest product on underground marketplaces, That said, the fact people can find weapons for sale with no background checks carried out, is an issue that needs to be addressed.
Additionally, this buyer spent close to US$2,000 worth of Bitcoin on the shotgun and ammunition. The customer’s computer has been confiscated, and the forensic analysis is still ongoing as we speak. It is unclear what the police is hoping to find, although they may try to find the buyer’s previous darknet history. In doing so, they can unveil the identity of the seller, as well as other people the buyer may have been in contact with.
Header image courtesy of Shutterstock
