Swedish and Finnish police shut down large Darknet site

Published 16 October 2024 at 18.10

Foreign. A collaboration between Swedish and Finnish police has contributed to shutting down Sipulitie – a website on the Darknet that was used for extensive drug sales.

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The Sipulitie Marketplace has been connectable to via the Darknet since 2023 and has operated as a website where sellers have sold drugs to customers. Everything has been done anonymously.

The website has mainly addressed Finnish sellers and buyers, but has also been available in an English-language version.

Through international legal cooperation, Finnish customs now have the help by Swedish police, prosecutors in Sweden, Europol and various police units in Finland shut down the website and detained people suspected of having administered and supported the operation of the website.

– The case came to the Prosecutor's Office in December 2023 as a European investigation order from Finland. Together with the Swedish police, we have worked to assist the Finnish authorities in their investigation. It also led to my deciding to start a parallel preliminary investigation here in Sweden, which is still ongoing. The cooperation with Finnish customs has worked well and produced very good results in the Finnish investigation, says chamber prosecutor Kajsa Lindberg.

The suspicions against persons in Finland have not yet been finally examined by a court in Finland and the final result is therefore still not known.

– In this type of case, international cooperation is required to succeed and it is an important signal to those who operate and use this type of website that authorities can shut down the pages and prosecute sellers, customers and the people behind the pages, says Kajsa Lindberg in a statement.