Law enforcement authorities arrested 150 suspects allegedly involved in selling and buying illicit goods on DarkMarket, the largest illegal marketplace on the dark web when it was
taken down in January 2021.
"At the time, German authorities arrested the marketplace’s alleged operator and seized the criminal infrastructure, providing investigators across the world with a trove of evidence," the
Europol said today.
"Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) has since been compiling intelligence packages to identify the key targets."
The arrests are the result of a coordinated international operation dubbed Dark HunTOR that lasted ten months and involved police forces and investigators from nine countries.
The suspects were apprehended in the United States (65), Germany (47), the United Kingdom (24), Italy (4), the Netherlands (4), France (3), Switzerland (2), and Bulgaria (1).
Dark HunTOR investigations are still ongoing, with investigators still working on identifying more individuals behind DarkMarket accounts.
The operation also led to the seizure of €26.7 million ($31 million) in cash and cryptocurrency, as well as 234 kg drugs (152 kg of amphetamine, 27 kg of opioids, and over 25 000 ecstasy pills) and 45 firearms.
