Europol and the U.S. Department of Justice reported a successful operation to curb large-scale drug trafficking on the darknet. During searches, authorities seized $6.5 million in cash and in cryptocurrency.
ONCE UPON A TIME ON THE DARK WEB…
Police authorities from 9 countries set out on a journey to catch cybercriminals coordinated by @Europol and @Eurojust
179 vendors were arrested.
$6.5m and 500kg of drugs were seized.Want to know the whole story? https://t.co/6H4ErdGieP pic.twitter.com/1ci8rz5ZUT
— Europol (@Europol) September 22, 2020
The operation, named DisrupTor, was carried out by authorities in Austria, Cyprus, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
As a result of the investigation in several countries, law enforcement arrested 179 people. The majority of arrests were made in the United States.
The operation DisrupTor “is based on the success” of the takedown of the darknet marketplace Wall Street Market, the U.S. Department of Justice said. After its closure, authorities obtained data that helped identify drug vendors.
“The golden age of the darknet market is over. Such operations underscore law enforcement’s ability to counter encryption and the anonymity of darknet marketplaces,” Europol said in a statement.
Some Twitter users say such actions by law enforcement amount to a ‘war on anonymity’ online.
The darknet is tiny. Market revenue is an insignificant rounding error in the global drug economy. Why do governments invest so much energy in hunting Tor users?
Darknet arrests are not a war on drugs. This is the war on anonymity. Learn to hunt criminals, then hunt activists.
— dark.fail (@DarkDotFail) September 22, 2020
“Why do governments spend so much energy hunting Tor users? Arrests in the darknet are not a war on drugs. It is a war on anonymity. Learn to hunt criminals, then hunt activists,” writes a Tor researcher under the handle dark.fail.
Earlier, besides Wall Street Market, last year, under joint international operations, Silkkitie, Dream Market and several other darknet marketplaces were shut down.
Darknet extinction: how and why bitcoin marketplaces disappear on the Tor network
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