The suspected kingpin of the Dream Market was arrested after gold coins were sent to his home address
If you’re going to run one of the world’s largest black drug markets, it’s probably a good idea to have the loot delivered to your front door.
That, according to American and German prosecutors, is what 49-year-old Owe Martin Andresen did — and it helped land him in custody on money-laundering charges on both sides of the Atlantic.
Andresen was arrested at his home on 7 May 2026 by German police. Prosecutors say he is a “Speedstepper” – the alleged mastermind of the Dream Market black market, which operated from 2013 until it was suddenly shut down in 2019.
A US Department of Justice press release describes Dream Market as one of the largest illegal markets on the dark web, hosting nearly 100,000 listings at any given time.
In its six years of existence, US authorities say Dream Market has facilitated the sale of more than 90kg of heroin, 450kg of cocaine, 25kg of crack cocaine, 45kg of methamphetamine, 13kg of oxycodone, and 36kg of fentanyl. But in addition to drugs, it also quickly traded in stolen information, fake identities, and other criminal materials.
In the past, Dream Market executives have been arrested.
For example, Frenchman Gal Vallerius (known on the site as “Oxymonster”) was arrested in 2017 after flying to the United States to compete in the World Beard and Mustache Championships (No, I’m not making this up). He was then sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Other administrators who used the online handles “KITT3N” and “GOWRON” were also convicted.
But Speedtstepper – the person who is said to be at the top of the Dream Market operation – has never reached the authorities, years after the site was closed in 2019, citing pressure from law enforcement.
Dream Market cryptocurrency wallets, which hold millions of dollars in commission payments, went dormant after the site was shut down. But in November and December 2022, someone with access to Dream Market’s first private keys started moving money.
Prosecutors allege that the man who delivered the money was Andresen. They say he mixed the contents of Dream Market’s wallets into new ones, and in August 2023, he used an Atlanta-based cryptocurrency service to convert the available money into gold bars bought from international dealers.
And, according to the indictment, those gold bars were sent directly to Andresen’s home address in Germany.
If the prosecutors’ claims are true, it was a big mistake for the man who is suspected to be the king of the Dream Market.
In total, prosecutors say Andresen made more than $2 million between August 2023 and April 2025.
German police searching Andresen’s residence and two other locations earlier this month reportedly seized nearly $1.7 million in gold bars, more than $23,000 in cash, and identified bank accounts and crypto wallets containing about US$1.2 million more.
Andresen is currently facing charges in the United States and Germany, and is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
If prosecutors are able to convince the court that Andresen is guilty, he could face a substantial prison sentence — long enough for anyone to wonder if posting gold bars to their front doors is really a smart move.
