BERLILN, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The largest online marketplace for illegal drugs in Germany has been shut down entirely and 11 suspects were arrested in the process, the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office and the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) announced on Friday.
The online platform, known as "Chemical Revolution", was shut down between mid-February and the end of May as a result of extensive "operational measures," according to the German authorities.
The German criminal police noted that their main suspect was a 26-year-old man who set up the drug online shop in September 2017 and operated it together with the 10 other suspects.
The 26-year-old was accused of managing the sale of narcotics over the internet, coordinating the procurement of narcotics and managing the finances of the perpetrator group, according to the BKA.
The server of the illegal online drug shop had been seized by officers from the German Federal Criminal Police Office and the French criminal police.
The online shop sold narcotics such as synthetic drugs, heroin, cocaine and cannabis and offered worldwide shipment, the German criminal police noted.
The buyers paid for the narcotics on Germany's largest online illegal drug market using the crypto currency Bitcoin.
Alongside German police authorities, police in the Netherlands, Poland, France and Spain were also involved in the investigations, noted the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office and the BKA.
The German authorities attributed the success of the investigation to "extensive international investigations".
In addition to selling narcotics on "Chemical Revolution", the group of suspects associated with the 26-year-old also sold narcotics via the Darknet online marketplace "Wall Street Market".
The platform "Wall Street Market" had been dismantled by German investigators in cooperation with European and international law enforcement agencies at the beginning of May.
According to the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office, "Wall Street Market" was the second largest criminal trading platform in the world.
