International authorities on Tuesday scooped up nearly 300 people and seized more than $53 million as part of a crackdown a dark web marketplace, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
The U.S. Department of Justice, its Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement (JCODE) team and international partners arrested 288 people and seized 117 firearms, 850 kilograms of drugs — including 64 kilograms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics — and the money, in cash and virtual currencies, the DOJ said.
“Operation SpecTor” was conducted in the U.S., Europe and South America — nine countries in all — targeting fentanyl and opioid trafficking on the so-called dark web.
The undertaking included outreach to people buying the opioids, an attempt to help those trapped in addiction who have bought drugs on the dark web, and link them to resources via a public awareness campaign, the DOJ said.
“The Sinaloa and Jalisco drug cartels, and the global networks they operate, are killing Americans by sending fentanyl into the United States. Their associates distribute this fentanyl into communities across America by every means possible, including the dark web,” U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration head Anne Milgram said in a statement.
“The DEA is committed to shutting down the fentanyl supply chain from beginning to end, and we will relentlessly pursue the associates of these cartels wherever they hide, even in the dark corners of the internet.”
The global operation targeted the “Monopoly Market,” a network of sales platforms for drugs and other illicit goods on the dark web, an encrypted realm of the internet. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said this was the highest number of arrests and the biggest fiscal seizure in any operation led by the DOJ.
The massive crackdown began in October 2021, authorities said. Among its successes were the takedown of a California defendant who led an organization that bought fentanyl in bulk, combined it with methamphetamine in pills and then then sold millions of pills to thousands of customers. He was charged with drug and weapons offenses.
Also in California, two people were charged with drug and money-laundering offenses for helping sell tens of thousands of fake oxycodone pills containing fentanyl, taking cryptocurrency for their trouble. In Florida the operation helped convict another defendant whose nationwide narcotics customer list numbered more than 6,000, Garland said.
Investigators also tracked down suppliers by following leads passed on by local police who were investigating overdose deaths. The U.S. saw the largest number of arrests, with 153, while 55 were arrested in the U.K. and 52 in Germany, according the operation’s worldwide coordinator, Europol.
“Our coalition of law enforcement authorities across three continents proves that we all do better when we work together,” Europol executive director Catherine De Bolle said in a statement. “This operation sends a strong message to criminals on the dark web: International law enforcement has the means and the ability to identify and hold you accountable for your illegal activities, even on the dark web.”