DARKMARKET

2010 that he was to stand trial. The prosecutor had dropped the unsubstantiated claim that Lingel had intentionally leaked Mularski’s name. Instead, the original charge was resurrected: he was accused of having informed a suspect that he was under surveillance.

Lingel opted to contest the charges and later that month the longest trial anywhere related to the DarkMarket case began in Stuttgart. Ironically, it did not involve any actual cyber criminals (except that Matrix001 and Fake testified as witnesses), but pitted the Baden-Württemberg police against one of its own. It was a fascinating event played out in front of a handful of people in a clean, small, anonymous court in Bad Cannstatt, Stuttgart’s spa district. The testimony of almost a dozen actors in the drama was startling, revealing many of the errors and misfortunes that plagued the policing operation in both Europe and the United States.