Regulation enforcement companies all over the world lately seized and shut down an unlawful darkish net market referred to as Monopoly Market as a part of efforts to crack down on illicit cryptocurrency transactions, based on a Could 2 Europol press launch.
Regulation enforcement seized $53.4 million in money and crypto as a part of the operation — dubbed SpecTor — and arrested 288 distributors that have been primarily promoting medicine and firearms by way of Monopoly Market and different related web sites.
Of the 288 arrests, 153 have been made within the U.S., 55 within the U.Okay., and 52 in Germany — with one California-based man accounting for over $2 million price of gross sales of methamphetamines and fentanyl.
The remaining arrests have been unfold out throughout the Netherlands, Austria, France, Switzerland, Poland, and Brazil.
Regulation enforcement companies throughout eight nations have been concerned in Operation SpecTor.
Operation SpecTor
In accordance with the Europol, Operation SpecTor started in October 2021 and is a part of the identical efforts by regulation enforcement companies that led to the seizure and shutdown of Hydra and Genesis Market in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
Hydra was the biggest unlawful market working on the darkish net on the time, whereas Genesis was the biggest identification theft market.
Just like the operation towards Hydra, German police initially seized the server infrastructure of Monopoly Market in December 2021 and subsequently started a “honey pot” operation in collaboration with the Europol and different companies all over the world.
The operation focused “excessive worth” distributors that have been supplying hundreds of thousands price of unlawful items to a number of markets throughout the globe.
In accordance with the U.S. Justice Division, Operation SpecTor was an “unprecedented” enforcement motion by a consortium of U.S. and worldwide regulation enforcement towards darkish net drug markets and illicit crypto transactions.
Lawyer Basic Merrick Garland stated throughout a press convention:
“The Justice Division is cracking down on felony cryptocurrency transactions, and the web felony marketplaces that allow them.”
Merrick stated the DoJ’s efforts to fight the fentanyl epidemic and the Sinaloa Cartel have revealed that criminals are more and more turning to the darkish net and promoting medicine in change for cryptocurrencies.
He stated that criminals suppose promoting anonymously on darkish web marketplaces will allow them to dodge the regulation and this has turn into a pattern lately. Nevertheless, the outcomes of current operations by regulation enforcement show that anonymity is not going to defend these criminals.
He added that the DoJ intends to seek out each felony on the darkish net, irrespective of the place they attempt to conceal within the “farthest reaches of the web.”
