US charges suspected Dream Market admin arrested in Germany

The alleged main administrator of Dream Market Incognito Market, one of the largest dark web marketplaces before its shutdown, has been indicted in the United States on money laundering charges.

49-year-old Owe Martin Andresen was charged by a federal grand jury on Wednesday with six counts of international concealment money laundering and six counts of concealment money laundering, and now faces up to 20 years in prison for each charge.

Andresen was arrested in Germany under separate charges of concealment money laundering, each also punishable by up to five years.

Dream Market was launched in November 2013 to provide anonymous access to illegal items and services. It became the largest dark web marketplace after the seizure of the Hansa and AlphaBay marketplaces and grew to carry close to 100,000 listings at any given time.

The Department of Justice says it facilitated the sale of more than 450 kilograms of cocaine, 90 kilograms of heroin, 45 kilograms of methamphetamine, 25 kilograms of crack cocaine, 13 kilograms of oxycodone, and 36 kilograms of fentanyl until its shutdown in 2019.

Andresen allegedly operated under the "Speedstepper" handle (the marketplace's main administrator), who was never previously identified despite earlier prosecutions of other high-ranking operators.

According to prosecutors, Andresen accessed dormant Dream Market cryptocurrency wallets containing millions of dollars in commission payments in November and December 2022 and moved the funds into new cryptocurrency wallets (an activity that could have been carried out by only someone possessing the marketplace's original private keys).

"Months later, in August 2023, Andresen allegedly used a cryptocurrency service provider based in Atlanta, Georgia to purchase gold bars from international companies using funds in the Consolidated Wallets and directed those companies to ship the gold bars to his home address in Germany," the DOJ said on Wednesday.

"German law enforcement identified additional money laundering transactions committed by Andresen in Germany. In total, Andresen is alleged to have laundered over $2 million between August 2023 and April 2025."

During searches of his residence and two other locations on May 7, 2026, German authorities recovered approximately $1.7 million in gold bars (allegedly bought using Dream Market funds), as well as more than $23,000 in cash and evidence on bank accounts and cryptocurrency wallets holding approximately $1.2 million in suspected Dream Market proceeds.

Other high-ranking admins who used the monikers "Oxymonster" and "KITT3N" were previously convicted following prosecutions led by the U.S. Department of Justice, while a mid-level admin responsible for customer service issues, who used the "GOWRON" handle, was convicted after prosecution by the United Kingdom Crown Prosecution Service.

Since the start of the year, the owner of Incognito Market, a massive online narcotics marketplace linked to over $105 million in illegal drug sales, was also sentenced to 30 years in prison, while a Virginia man who co-created the Empire Market dark web marketplace pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy charges for facilitating $430 million in illegal transactions.

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