On the surface, Archetyp looked like a legitimate e-commerce site, with search functions, product listings and user profiles.
But it sold cannabis, cocaine, LSD and other drugs - in large quantities.
It actually works like Blocket or Tradera, and other legal sites. You register as a seller or buyer and then trade back and forth, but using cryptocurrency, says Björn Eriksson, a criminal inspector at the National IT Crime Center.
Then it happens on the darknet, which is more anonymous and harder to access. But it works in much the same way.
Thursday's verdict applies, among others, to three men charged with aiding and abetting a particularly serious drug offence and suspected of having been moderators at Archetyp.
Organised crime
When the authorities cracked down on the site in 2025, it had more than 600,000 users, 3,000 sellers and 17,000 listings. In total, an estimated at least 250 million euros (equivalent to just over 2.7 billion Swedish kronor) had been sold.
Much of the profit is believed to have ended up with criminal gangs.
We have seen a fairly close connection to serious organised crime - the people behind both explosions and shootings, who have also been able to rake in millions of kronor from this activity, says Björn Eriksson.
According to Björn Eriksson, the number of Swedes on Archetyp increased a few years ago when Flugsvamp 3.0 - itself a successor to Flugsvamp 2.0 - was shut down.
Similarly, both sellers and buyers have moved on since Archetyp was shut down, he notes.
Calls for new laws
Tackling digital crime is both complicated and time-consuming. This summer, National Police Commissioner Petra Lundh called for new legislation to give the police greater digital powers.
This could, for example, involve blocking phone systems used for fraudulent calls or preventing the use of a particular account or platform.
"No one wants the digital world to be a free zone where criminals can commit crimes without risk. That's why we need the same powers in the digital world as in the physical world," says Björn Eriksson.
