Police have arrested 150 people globally for buying and selling illegal goods online in one of the largest-ever stings on the dark web according to Europol.
65 people were arrested in the US, 47 arrested in Germany, 24 arrested in the UK, 4 in Italy, and 4 in the Netherlands
DarkHunTOR, “was set up by a series of separate but complementary actions in Australia, France, Italy, Germany, UK, US, Switzerland, Netherlands, and Bulgaria,” said the Hague based Europol
Operation DarkHunTOR also recovered millions of euros in cash and Bitcoin, as well as drugs and guns, the European Union’s police agency said on Tuesday.
The Police Officers seized 26.7million euros ($31m) in cash and digital money, 45 guns, 234kg of drugs including 25000 Ecstasy pills
The Italian Police shut down the “DeepSea” and “Berlusconi” marketplaces, “which together boasted over 100,000 announcements of illegal products”, said Europol, which coordinated the operation together with its twin judicial agency Eurojust.
To put criminals operating on the dark web on notice (that) the law enforcement community has the means and global partnerships to reveal them and hold them accountable for their illegal activities, even in areas of the dark web, Is the aim of this operation” Europol Deputy Director of Operations Jean-Philippe Lecouffe said
However, the dark web is a hidden collective of internet sites only accessible by specialized web browsing software. It keeps online activity unknown and private, making it harder for law enforcement agencies to track criminal behaviour.