Police link around the world arrested 150suspects involved in buying or selling illegal goods online in one of thelargest-ever stings targeting the dark linkweb, Europol link said Tuesday.
Operation DarkHunTOR also recovered millions of euros in cash and bitcoin,as well as drugs and guns. The bust stems from a German-led policelink stinglink earlier this year taking down the”world’s largest” darknet marketplace.
Dark link HunTOR, “was composed of a seriesof separate but complementary actions in Australia, Bulgaria, France,Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and theUnited States,” the Hague-based Europollink said.
In the United States alone, policelink65 people, while 47 were held in Germany, 24 in Britain, and four each inItaly and the Netherlands, among others.
A number of those arrested “were considered high-value targets” by Europollink.
Law agents also confiscated 26.7 million euros ($31 million) in cash andvirtual currencies, as well as 45 guns and 234 kilogrammes (516 pounds) ofdrugs, including 25,000 ecstasy pills.
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Italian police link also shut down the”DeepSea” and “Berlusconi” marketplaces, “which together boasted over100,000 announcements of illegal products”, said Europollink, which coordinated the operationtogether with its twin judicial agency Eurojust.
“The point of operations such as this is to put criminals operating on thedark link on notice (that) the lawenforcement community has the means and global partnerships to unmask themand hold them accountable for their illegal activities, even in areas ofthe dark link web,” Europollink deputy director of operationsJean-Philippe Lecouffe said.
German police link in January closed downthe “DarkMarket” online market place, used by its alleged operator, anAustralian, to facilitate the sale of drugs, stolen credit card data andmalware.
