International law enforcement efforts have arrested 288 vendors believed to be involved in drug trafficking on the dark web, adding to the long list of criminal enterprises shut down in recent years.
Efforts Codenamed Operation specterAuthorities also seized over $53.4 million in cash and cryptocurrency, 850 kg of drugs and 117 firearms.
The United States (153) had the highest number of arrests, followed by the United Kingdom (55), Germany (52), the Netherlands (10), Austria (9), France (5), Switzerland (2) and Poland (1). , and Brazil (1).
U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said, “This marks the highest number of seizures of funds and the highest number of arrests of any coordinated international action.” “Drug traffickers believe that by operating anonymously on the dark web, they can operate outside the bounds of the law. They are wrong.”
The arrest stems from evidence gathered after German authorities closed the monopoly market in December 2021. In early January 2022, DarkDotFail revealed that Crime Bazaar’s servers had likely been seized by law enforcement, although there was no official announcement.
“Vendors arrested as a result of police action against monopoly markets are also active in other illegal markets, further hampering the trade of drugs and illicit goods on the dark web,” Europol said in a statement. rice field.
“The result was the arrest of 288 vendors and buyers involved in the sale of tens of thousands of illegal goods in Europe, the United States and Brazil.”
According to Europol, many of these arrested individuals are considered high-value targets, giving law enforcement access to the vendor’s extensive buyer list and are now at risk of prosecution. It added that it could expose “thousands of customers”.
Operation SpecTor is the successor to DisrupTor and DarkHunTor, and in 2020 and 2021, 329 suspected suspects were arrested for buying, selling, and coordinating sales of illegal goods in underground marketplaces and shops. I was.
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The development comes after the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Ukrainian National Police seized nine cryptocurrency exchanges for knowingly providing cryptocurrency conversion services to criminals involved in ransomware and other scams. It happened though.
“These nine seized domains, 24xbtc.com, 100btc.pro, pridechange.com, 101crypta.com, uxbtc.com, trust-exchange.org, bitcoin24.exchange, paybtc.pro and owl.gold, are anonymous. We were providing cryptocurrency exchange services for website visitors,” the Justice Department said.
This dismantling follows a broader effort by European and U.S. governments to target the infrastructure malicious actors use to launder illicit earnings and obscure financial flows. It’s part of it.
