A Kosovo national has been extradited to the United States to face charges of running an online cybercrime marketplace active since 2018.
Kosovar authorities arrested the 33-year-old Liridon Masurica (also known as @blackdb) on December 14th, 2024, and he was extradited to the United States earlier this month, on May 9th.
Masurica was detained following his court appearance in Tampa on May 12th, where he was brought before United States Magistrate Judge Lindsay Saxe Griffin.
During this hearing, he was charged with five counts of fraudulent use of unauthorized access devices and one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud.
According to court documents, Masurica was the lead administrator of the online criminal marketplace BlackDB.cc, which has been active for the past seven years, starting in 2018.
The Justice Department said the marketplace illegally offered for sale compromised accounts and server credentials, stolen credit card information, and personally identifiable information (PII) of individuals, most from the United States.
Cybercriminals who purchased these items on the BlackDB marketplace used them in various illegal activities, including credit card fraud, tax fraud, and identity theft.
The FBI conducted this investigation in partnership with the Kosovo Police’s Cybercrime Investigation Directorate, with support from the FBI’s Legal Attaché Office in Sofia and the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, which assisted in Masurica’s arrest and extradition.
If convicted on all charges, the BlackDB marketplace admin could face a maximum sentence of 55 years in federal prison.
In December, a joint law enforcement operation also led to the seizure of the Rydox cybercrime marketplace and the arrest of three Rydox administrators, Kosovo nationals Ardit Kutleshi, Jetmir Kutleshi, and Shpend Sokoli.
Days earlier, German authorities also arrested key suspects after shutting down the Manson market and Crimenetwork, the country’s largest online cybercrime marketplace.
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