Washington— The United States Department of Justice announced Tuesday the arrest of 288 suspects, in the framework of an international police operation aimed at stopping the illicit trafficking of fentanyl and other opioids.
The joint operation called SpecTor was organized by the United States, the United Kingdom and Brazil with the European security authorities and managed to seize almost a ton of drugs and 117 firearms, in addition to the closure of a “dark web” portal, the hidden part of the internet
United States Attorney General Merrick Garland stated that the raid seized 117 firearms, 850 kilograms of drugs and $53.4 million in cash and virtual currencies.
“Our message to dark web criminals is this: they may try to hide in the far reaches of the internet, but the Department of Justice will find them and hold them accountable for their crimes,” Garland said at a news conference. .
The largest number of arrests took place in the United States, where 153 people were detained; followed by the United Kingdom with 55; Germany, with 52; and the Netherlands with 10.
“In an operation coordinated by Europol and involving nine countries, security forces seized the illegal Monopoly Market and arrested 288 suspected of being involved in buying or selling drugs,” Euro-pol said.
“Several of these suspects were considered high value targets.”
This operation occurred after the German Police seized the criminal infrastructure of the Monopoly Market sales platform in 2021.
“Europol compiled intelligence packages based on the trove of evidence that was handed over by the German authorities,” the agency explained.
“These target packages, created from the cross-reference and analysis of collected data and evidence, served as the foundation for hundreds of investigations nationwide.”
More than 258 kilos of amphetamines were seized; 43 kilos of cocaine; 43 kilos of MDMA; the raw material for ecstasy pills; and more than ten kilos of LSD and ecstasy, Europol said.
forceful message
The “dark web” is a parallel version of the Internet where the anonymity of users is guaranteed – and which also has legal sites, for example to avoid press censorship in certain countries – has been the object of several international operations in recent years.
In April 2022, the Hydra Market platform was dismantled, a hidden internet site that was considered “the illegal market with the highest turnover in the world” with close to 1,230 million euros in sales in 2020.
“This new operation sends a strong message to the criminals of the ‘dark web’,” said the executive director of Europol, Catherine de Bolle, quoted in the statement.
“International security forces have the means and the ability to identify and hold them accountable for their illegal activities.”
In April, the world’s largest online marketplace for stolen identities and passwords of more than two million people, the Genesis platform, was dismantled.
This operation was coordinated by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Dutch Police, with the participation of 17 countries, which culminated in 119 arrests.
There are still several investigations underway into the identity of who is behind the “dark web” accounts, the Dutch police said.
With information from Reuters and AFP
