Scotland Yard has taken down an online drug marketplace after officers spent months quietly working inside the platform, gathering the data needed to identify those running and using it.
AEGIS Marketplace, which allowed dealers to list illegal drugs for purchase using cryptocurrency, had built up 30 active sellers and an estimated 10,000 completed transactions in under a year before the Metropolitan Police moved to seize it. Based on that volume, investigators put the site’s annual turnover at close to £2 million.
The Met’s Cyber Crime Unit first became aware of the platform in June 2025. Over the following months, officers infiltrated the site and extracted server data, which is now being used to trace administrators, individual sellers and customers who made purchases through it.
Anyone attempting to visit the site is now greeted with a seizure notice in place of its listings.
The operation forms part of a broader push by the force to pursue criminal activity conducted through encrypted and dark web channels, where offenders have historically believed themselves difficult to detect.
Will Lyne, Head of Economic and Cyber Crime at the Metropolitan Police, said the takedown demonstrated the force’s ability to penetrate sophisticated illegal platforms, adding that those who believe the dark web offers protection from law enforcement should reconsider.
Investigators say their work is continuing, with prosecutions expected to follow as the retrieved data is worked through. The seizure of server records means the inquiry is likely to extend beyond the site’s operators to those who used it to buy or sell controlled substances.
