Global Dark Web Crackdown: 288 Arrested, Drugs, Guns, And Crypto Seized
The US and international law enforcement arrested 288 persons and confiscated over $53 million in cash and cryptocurrency in a major dark web crackdown.
In a press release, the US Justice Department conveyed the operation, which started in 2021, spanning across the United States, Europe, and South America and including law enforcement on three continents.
The unparalleled operation, dubbed Operation SpecTor, aimed at tackling fentanyl and opioid trafficking on the darknet.
Global Operation On Cybercriminals
The operation saw about 288 suspects arrested and over $53 million in cash and cryptocurrency confiscated, dozens of firearms, and more than 850 kilograms of drugs confiscated.
Furthermore, The operation also involved law enforcement from nine other countries, including Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, and the UK.
sometime later a press release says that the operation ended with the seizure of a dark-web marketplace called Monopoly Market.
Additionally, this joint operation sends a strong message to criminals on the dark web that international law enforcement can plug and pinpoint and hold accountable threat actors for illegal activities, even on the dark web,
SpecTor was the Next Dark Web
Garland said SpecTor was a continuance of the exertion to disrupt darknet marketplaces after the closure of Hydra in 2022 and online identity theft site Genesis Market in 2023.
In April 2022, US agencies confiscated and shut down Hydra, which was deemed to be the world’s largest and oldest darknet marketplace of illegal items and services.
However, the DOJ agency said the German Federal Criminal Police had confiscated cryptocurrency wallets possessing $25 million in Bitcoin from the marketplace.
Moreover, DOJ reportedly claimed that Hydra accounted for an estimated 80% of all darknet criminal market-related cryptocurrency transactions in 2021.
Similarly, authorities shut down widespread fraud shop Genesis Market and apprehended hundreds of its users around the world in an organized collaboration with international law enforcement and other forces dubbed Operation Cookie Monster.
