A multi-continental crackdown has halted a major “dark web” marketplace, with international police arresting 288 suspects and recovering more than €50 million in cash and virtual currency, Europol said on Tuesday.
The joint operation called SpecTor by US, British, Brazilian and European law enforcement also netted almost a ton of drugs and 117 firearms, Europe’s policing agency said.
“In an operation coordinated by Europol and involving nine countries, law enforcement have seized the illegal dark web marketplace ‘Monopoly Market’ and arrested 288 suspects involved in buying or selling drugs on the dark web,” the Hague-based Europol said in a statement.
“A number of these suspects were considered high-value targets,” Europol said.
The sting followed in the wake of a successful 2021 operation by German police in which it seized the Monopoly Market’s criminal infrastructure.
“Europol has been compiling intelligence packages based on troves of evidence provided by the German authorities,” Europol said.
“These target packages, created by cross-matching and analysing the collected data and evidence served as the basis for hundreds of national investigations,” it said.
“As a result, 288 vendors and buyers who engaged in tens-of-thousands of sales of licit goods were arrested across Europe, Britain, the United States and Brazil,” Europol said.
The largest number of arrests were in the US with 153, Britain 55, Germany 52 and the Netherlands, 10.
Police got back €50.8 million in cash and virtual currency and seized 850kg of drugs, the majority composing of amphetamines, Europol said.
Police also seized 43kg of cocaine, 43kg of the drug MDMA and more than 10kg of LSD and ecstasy pills.
“Our coalition of law enforcement authorities across three continents proves that we all do better when we work together,” Europol’s director Catherine De Bolle said.
“This operation sends a strong message to criminals on the dark web: international law enforcement has the means and the ability to identify and hold you accountable for your illegal activities,” she said.
Operation SpecTor comes in the wake of last month’s take-down of the world’s largest online marketplaces selling stolen identities and passwords.
Led by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Dutch police the operation called “Cookie Monster” saw 119 suspects arrested and involved 17 countries across the world.
“Cookie Monster” targeted the Genesis marketplace, where cyber criminals could buy stolen identities and passwords of more than two million people.
The website was based in Russia, according to the US Treasury, which said it had imposed sanctions against Genesis Market.
A cookie is a piece of computer data that makes it easier to reopen web pages. Cookie Monster is a blue, furry character from the US children’s television series Sesame Street.
