Security News > 2023 > May > Operation SpecTor: $53.4 Million Seized, 288 Vendors Arrested in Dark Web Drug Bust

An international law enforcement operation has resulted in the arrest of 288 vendors who are believed to be involved in drug trafficking on the dark web, adding to a long list of criminal enterprises that have been shuttered in recent years.

"This represents the most funds seized and the highest number of arrests in any coordinated international action," U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said.

"The drug traffickers are confident that, by operating anonymously on the dark web, they can operate outside the bounds of the law. They are wrong."

"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," Europol said in a statement.

"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."

Operation SpecTor is a successor to DisrupTor and DarkHunTor, which led to the arrest of 329 alleged suspects in 2020 and 2021 for buying, selling, and coordinating the sale of outlawed goods across underground marketplaces and shops.

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2023/05/operation-spector-534-million-seized.html