Den Haag: Police around the world arrested 150 suspects involved in buying or selling illegal items online in one of the biggest stings targeting the dark web, said Europol said Tuesday.
Operation Darkhuntor also recovers millions of Euros in cash and bitcoin, as well as drugs and weapons.
The breast comes from a German led police sting earlier this year noted the world’s largest “Darknet Marketplace”.
Huntor Dark, “consists of a series of separate actions but complementary in Australia, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, England, and the United States,” Europol said in the Hague-based.
In the United States alone, the police arrested 65 people, while 47 were held in Germany, 24 in England, and four of them in Italy and the Netherlands, among others.
Some of them were arrested “considered a high-value target” by Europol.
Legal agents also confiscated 26.7 million euros ($ 31 million) in cash and virtual, and 45 weapons and 234 kilograms (516 pounds) drugs, including 25,000 ecstasy pills.
Italian police also closed “Deepsea” and “cucal” marketplaces, “which together boasted more than 100,000 announcements of illegal products”, said Europol, who coordinated the operation together with the Twin Eurojust Court.
“The operating point like this is to put criminals operating on the dark web on notifications (that) law enforcement communities have global facilities and partnerships to open their guys and hold them for their illegal activities, even in the dark areas of the web,” said Deputy Director of Operation Europol Jean-Philippe Lecouffe.
German police in January closed under the “Darkmarket” online market, which was used by the alleged operator, an Australian, to facilitate drug sales, stolen credit card data and malware.