Britain’s police have been involved in a three-continent operation to close dark web sites.
Officers around the world seized €51 million in cash and virtual currencies.
Also, 850 kilogrammes of drugs and 11 firearms were recovered.
More than 280 “vendors” using the site “Monopoly Market” have been arrested.
Fifty-five arrests were made in the UK led by Britain’s National Crime Agency.
The seized drugs include over 258 kg of amphetamines, 43 kg of cocaine, 43 kg of MDMA and over 10 kg of LSD and ecstasy pills.
The operation – codenamed SpecTor – was composed of a series of separate complementary actions in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Switzerland.
Europol said in a statement:
“We have been compiling intelligence packages based on troves of evidence provided by German authorities, who successfully seized the marketplace’s criminal infrastructure in December 2021.
“These target packages, created by cross-matching and analysing the collected data and evidence, served as the basis for hundreds of national investigations.
“The vendors arrested as a result of the police action against Monopoly Market were also active on other illicit marketplaces, further impeding the trade of drugs and illicit goods on the dark web. “As a result, 288 vendors and buyers who engaged in tens of thousands of sales of illicit goods were arrested across Europe, the United States and Brazil.
“A number of these suspects were considered high-value targets by Europol.
The arrests took place in the United States (153), the United Kingdom (55), Germany (52), the Netherlands (10), Austria (9), France (5), Switzerland (2), Poland (1) and Brazil (1).
Several investigations to name more individuals behind dark web accounts are still ongoing.
As law enforcement authorities gained access to the vendors’ extensive buyer lists, thousands of customers across the globe are now at risk of prosecution as well.
In the run-up to this co-ordinated operation, German and U.S. authorities also shut down ‘Hydra’, which was the highest-grossing dark web market with an estimated revenue of EUR 1.23 billion, in April 2022.
The Hydra takedown saw EUR 23 million in cryptocurrencies seized by German authorities.
Europol’s Executive Director, Catherine De Bolle, said:
“Our coalition of law enforcement authorities across three continents proves that we all do better when we work together.
“This operation sends a strong message to criminals on the dark web: international law enforcement has the means and the ability to find and hold you accountable for your illegal activities, even on the dark web.