Law enforcement agencies from nine countries arrested 150 suspects selling drugs on the dark web, he said today Europol and the US Department of Justice.
It was part of a joint operation called Dark HunTOR, and the suspects were arrested in the US, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the Australia, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.
Officials said the arrests came from an investigation following its closure dark market, the largest dark web market in the world for illegal products, which took place on January 21st.
"Εκείνη την εποχή, οι γερμανικές αρχές συνέλαβαν τον φερόμενο ως διαχειριστή της αγοράς και κατάσχεσαν την υποδομή, παρέχοντας σε ερευνητές από όλο τον κόσμο μια συλλογή αποδεικτικών στοιχείων", ανέφεραν σήμερα αξιωματούχοι της Europol.
Τα δεδομένα κοινοποιήθηκαν σε άλλες υπηρεσίες επιβολής του νόμου στο πλαίσιο της επιχείρησης Dark HunTOR, την οποία η αναπληρώτρια γενική εισαγγελέας του DOJ Lisa Monaco περιέγραψε σε μια συνέντευξη Τύπου σήμερα σαν "τη μεγαλύτερη επιχείρηση του νόμου στον κόσμο".
Monaco also said most of the suspects arrested today were drug dealers selling or buying opioids from DarkMarket.
Following the arrests, authorities said they seized more than 26,7m euros in cash and fictitious coins, 234kg of drugs and 45 firearms. The seized drugs include 152 kilograms of amphetamine, 27 kilograms of opioids and over 25.000 ecstasy pills.
In addition, Italian authorities used the data from the DarkMarket shutdown to identify and shut down DeepSea and Berlusconi Market, two similar markets aimed at Italian users.
Both markets had over 100.000 listings for illegal products. Italian officials say they have arrested four administrators and seized 3,6m euros in cryptocurrencies.