[German]In a coordinated action called SpecTor, Europol, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies arrested 288 operators and customers of a darknet platform where drugs were being transshipped. The operation covered 9 countries. Law enforcement authorities also seized the illegal dark web marketplace "Monopoly Market".
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Operation SpecTor, coordinated by Europol and involving nine countries, targeted the illegal dark web marketplace "Monopoly Market". This was seized by law enforcement authorities. At the same time, 288 suspects were arrested in the participating countries. These are accused of being involved in buying or selling drugs on the dark web.
This operation, codenamed SpecTor, consisted of a series of separate, complementary actions in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the United States and Switzerland. More than EUR 50.8 million (USD 53.4 million) in cash and virtual currencies, 850 kg of drugs and 117 firearms were seized. Drugs seized included more than 258 kg of amphetamines, 43 kg of cocaine, 43 kg of MDMA, and more than 10 kg of LSD and ecstasy pills.
Evidence data after seizure
Europol has compiled information packages based on evidence provided by German authorities who successfully seized the marketplace criminal infrastructure in December 2021. These target packages, created by matching and analyzing the collected data and evidence, served as the basis for hundreds of national investigations.
The sellers arrested, as a result of the police action against Monopoly Market, were also active on other illegal marketplaces, further hindering the trade of drugs and illegal goods on the dark web. As a result, 288 sellers and buyers were arrested, involved in tens of thousands of sales of illegal goods throughout Europe, the United States, and Brazil. Some of these suspects were classified as high-level targets by Europol.
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Arrests were made 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). A number of investigations to identify additional individuals behind dark web accounts are ongoing. As law enforcement authorities have gained access to the providers' extensive buyer lists, thousands of customers around the world now also face criminal prosecution.
Illegal marketplaces on the dark web
In advance of this coordinated operation, German and U.S. authorities also shut down "Hydra," the dark web marketplace with the highest turnover, estimated at EUR 1.23 billion, in April 2022. In the process of breaking up Hydra, German authorities seized cryptocurrencies worth EUR 23 million.
In terms of the number of arrests, the operation was even more successful than previous operations codenamed DisrupTor (2020) with 179 and Dark HunTor (2021) with 150 arrests. It shows once again that international cooperation between police agencies is key to fighting crime on the dark web.
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