In an operation coordinated by Europol and involving nine countries, law enforcement have seized the illegal dark web marketplace “Monopoly Market” and arrested 288 suspects involved in buying or selling drugs on the dark web.
More than EUR 50.8 million (USD 53.4 million) in cash and virtual currencies, 850 kg of drugs, and 117 firearms were seized.
The seized drugs include over 258 kg of amphetamines, 43 kg of cocaine, 43 kg of MDMA and over 10 kg of LSD and ecstasy pills.
This operation, codenamed SpecTor, was composed of a series of separate complementary actions in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Switzerland.
Europol has been compiling intelligence packages based on troves of evidence provided by German authorities, who successfully seized the marketplace’s criminal infrastructure in December 2021.
These target packages, created by cross-matching and analysing the collected data and evidence, served as the basis for hundreds of national investigations.
The vendors arrested as a result of the police action against Monopoly Market were also active on other illicit marketplaces, further impeding the trade of drugs and illicit goods on the dark web. As a result, 288 vendors and buyers who engaged in tens of thousands of sales of illicit goods were arrested across Europe, the United States and Brazil.
A number of these suspects were considered high-value targets by Europol. The arrests took place in the United States (153), the United Kingdom (55), Germany (52), the Netherlands (10), Austria (9), France (5), Switzerland (2), Poland (1) and Brazil (1). A number of investigations to identify additional individuals behind dark web accounts are still ongoing.
As law enforcement authorities gained access to the vendors’ extensive buyer lists, thousands of customers across the globe are now at risk of prosecution as well.
Illicit marketplaces on the dark web In the run-up to this coordinated operation, German and U.S. authorities also shut down ‘Hydra’, which was the highest-grossing dark web market with an estimated revenue of EUR 1.23 billion, in April 2022.
The Hydra takedown saw EUR 23 million in cryptocurrencies seized by German authorities. In terms of arrests, the operation was even more successful than previous operations codenamed DisrupTor (2020) with 179 and Dark HunTor (2021) with 150 arrests. It shows once more that international collaboration between police authorities is key for combatting crime on the Dark Web. Commenting on Operation SpecTor, Europol’s Executive Director, Catherine De Bolle, said: Our coalition of law enforcement authorities across three continents proves that we all do better when we work together.
