Alleged Dream Market admin arrested in Germany after US indictment

German and U.S. authorities arrested the alleged administrator behind Dream Market, a popular dark web forum that shut down in 2019. 

During a May 7 raid on three locations, German and U.S. law enforcement arrested Owe Martin Andresen, 49, on multiple charges of money laundering. 

An indictment unsealed this week by the DOJ accused Andresen of being the main administrator of Dream Market. The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment about whether they will ask for him to be extradited from Germany, where he also faces charges.

U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg said Andresen “will be prosecuted in both Germany and the United States as a result of his actions.”

“Andresen allegedly channeled commissions earned from selling illegal drugs, stolen personally identifiable information, counterfeit identification documents, and other items through cryptocurrency wallets and even converted his ill-gotten gains into gold bars,” Hertzberg said. 

Court documents said Dream Market was launched in 2013 by Andresen and others before becoming one of the biggest criminal marketplaces online. At its peak, the site had more than 100,000 listings and prosecutors said the site enabled the sale of 90 kilograms of heroin, 450 kilograms of cocaine, 25 kilograms of crack cocaine, 36 kilograms of fentanyl and other drugs. 

The site was accessed through the Tor anonymity network and relied on cryptocurrency payments. 

After a 2019 law enforcement operation that resulted in dozens of arrests of online drug dealers, Dream Market announced that it was shutting down. The Justice Department said the 2019 raids were part of the effort to dismantle Dream Market at the time, allowing them to arrest, prosecute and convict several high-level vendors and administrators. 

While at least one mid-level administrator of the site was arrested and prosecuted in the U.K. at the time, the main administrator was never found. 

After the platform shut down, U.S. agencies continued watching cryptocurrency wallets associated with the site but found that they were never touched. The wallets held millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency that were the result of commissions paid by customers to administrators. Dozens of U.S. agencies including the FBI and DEA worked on the investigation into the platform between 2016 and 2022.

Andresen eventually accessed the wallets in late 2022, transferring the cryptocurrency to other wallets. He tried to launder the cryptocurrency by purchasing gold bars from a company in Atlanta and having them sent to his home in Germany. 

Prosecutors said Andresen laundered about $2 million between August 2023 and April 2025. 

Police raided Andresen’s home and two other locations last week, finding about $1.7 million worth of gold bars as well as $23,000 in cash. Agents found bank accounts and crypto wallets that held another $1.2 million allegedly tied to Dream Market. 

Andresen was indicted on six charges of money laundering and another six charges of international money laundering. In total, he is facing up to 240 years in prison for the U.S. charges and up to five years for the German charges. 

Last week, the administrator of another darknet market was given a 16-year sentence after another joint takedown by German and U.S. authorities. A Taiwanese national was sentenced to 30 years in U.S. prison for his role as an administrator of Incognito Market in February and U.S. officials indicted the alleged founder of Nemesis Market last year.