Amsterdam, May 2, (dpa/GNA) – Police in nine countries on both sides of the Atlantic have shut down a dark web drugs marketplace, arrested 288 suspects and seized more than $53 million in cash and virtual currencies, Europol said on Tuesday.
The EU’s law enforcement agency based in The Hague said that in addition 850 kilograms of drugs and 117 firearms were seized.
“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,” it said.
The operation, codenamed SpecTor, comprised separate complementary actions in Austria, Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Brazil, the United States and Switzerland.
“Europol has been compiling intelligence packages based on troves of evidence provided by German authorities, who successfully seized the marketplace’s criminal infrastructure in December 2021,” Europol said.
Investigations to identify others behind dark web accounts were still ongoing, it said. It added that as law enforcement authorities had gained access to the lists of buyers, “thousands of customers across the globe are now at risk of prosecution as well.”
Europol Executive Director Catherine De Bolle said the operation proved the effectiveness of cooperation and demonstrated to criminals that they could be identified, “even on the dark web.”
GNA