By Aaron Miller-
The US Department of Justice has announced the arrest of 150 people worldwide, and seized more than $31 million in an international drug trafficking investigation stemming from sales on the darknet, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
The huge drug bust follows a global law enforcement probe into drug traffickers operating via the Darknet.
Following a coordinated 10-month effort spanning three continents, arrests have now been made across a number of countries, including Australia, Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Bulgaria, the UK and the US.
The Justice Department said the crooks arrested were involved in tens of thousands of illegal online drug sales in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Australia, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Sixty-five Americans were among those arrested, along with 47 Germans and 25 British citizens, Dutch media reported.
“The point of operations such as the one today is to put criminals operating on the dark web on notice: The law enforcement community has the means and global partnerships to unmask them and hold them accountable for their illegal activities, even in areas of the dark web,” Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, Europol’s deputy executive director of operations, said in a statement.
After the DarkMarket was taken down back in January, US federal law enforcement officials joined forces with Europol in Europe to identify and track down Darknet drug vendors and buyers, a probe that ultimately led to ‘a series of complementary, but separate, law enforcement investigations’
Those arrested during this investigation, named Operation Dark HunTor, include a number of alleged drug traffickers as well as other suspects believed to have ‘engaged in tens of thousands of sales of illicit goods and services’.
This number includes 65 people in the US, 47 people in Germany and 24 people in the UK, as well as four in both Italy and the Netherlands, three in France, two in Switzerland and one in Bulgaria.
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray said:
The FBI continues to identify and bring to justice drug dealers who believe they can hide their illegal activity through the Darknet.
Criminal darknet markets exist so drug dealers can profit at the expense of others’ safety.
The FBI is committed to working with our JCODE and EUROPOL law enforcement partners to disrupt those markets and the borderless, worldwide trade in illicit drugs they enable.Investigators have also managed to seize more than $31.6 million worth of cash and cryptocurrency, 45 guns and a large quantity of illegal drugs.
These illicit substances included counterfeit medication and opioid pills, as well as more than 152kg worth of amphetamine, 21kg of cocaine and 32.5kg of MDMA.
Administrator Anne Milgram of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has made the following statement:
Today, we face new and increasingly dangerous threats as drug traffickers expand into the digital world and use the Darknet to sell dangerous drugs like fentanyl and methamphetamine.
These drug traffickers are flooding the United States with deadly, fake pills, driving the U.S. overdose crisis, spurring violence, and threatening the safety and health of American communities.
DEA’s message today is clear: criminal drug networks operating on the Darknet, trying to hide from law enforcement, can no longer hide. DEA, the U.S. interagency, and our valued international partners, are committed to dismantling drug networks wherever they are, including on the Darknet.
It’s understood that this international investigation remains ongoing, with investigators continuing their work to trace other suspects behind Darknet accounts.