This Tuesday, an internment operation was carried out against a portal of the dark web with 288 people arrested as suspects.

Europol announced that a total of approximately USD 56 million was seized, between cash and virtual currency, as well as 850 kilograms of drugs and 117 firearms.

The operation dubbed SpecTor was carried out in nine countries, the European Union Agency for Police Cooperation (Europol) said.

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“In an operation coordinated by Europol (…) security forces seized the illegal Monopoly market and arrested 288 individuals suspected of being involved in buying or selling drugs” on the hidden internet, a statement from the entity said.

“Several of these suspects were considered high-value targets,” Europol said.

The operation dates back to 2021 when the criminal infrastructure of the platform was seized in Germany. “These target packs, created from cross-referencing and analysis of collected data and evidence, served as the basis for hundreds of studies across the country,” the agency added.

The arrests took place in the United States (153 people), the United Kingdom (55), Germany (52), the Netherlands (10), Austria (9), France (5), Switzerland (2), Poland (1) and Brazil (1).

It was specified that 258 kilograms of amphetamine, 43 kilograms of cocaine, 43 kilograms of MDMA, the raw material for ecstasy pills, and more than ten kilograms of LSD and ecstasy were also seized.

“Criminals may think they are anonymous on the ‘dark web’, but they are not,” said Nan van de Coevering of the Dutch investigative services in a statement.

“In response to this operation, we have published a list on the ‘dark web’ of all the pseudonyms of the detained vendors who have ceased their illegal activities,” he added.