300 caught in global dark web drug bust

Authorities seize $53m in proceeds

THE HAGUE — Authorities in the United States and Europe arrested nearly 300 people, confiscated more than $53 million, and seized a dark web marketplace as part of an international crackdown on drug trafficking that officials say was the largest operation of its kind.

The worldwide operation targeting the “Monopoly Market” is the latest major takedown of sales platforms for drugs and other illicit goods on the so-called dark web, a part of the Internet hosted within an encrypted network and accessible only through specialized anonymity-providing tools.

The largest number of arrests were made in the United States, which is in the grips of an overdose crisis. Synthetic opioids, mostly fentanyl, kill more Americans every year than died in the Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars combined.

“Our message to criminals on the dark web is this: You can try to hide in the furthest reaches of the Internet, but the Justice Department will find you and hold you accountable for your crimes,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said.

The number of arrests and money seized was the highest for any international Justice Department-led drug trafficking operation, Garland said. One defendant in California led an organization that bought fentanyl in bulk, pressed it into pills with methamphetamine, and sold millions of the pills to thousands of people on the dark web, he said.

Investigators also got leads from local police investigating overdose deaths, including that of a 19-year-old Colorado man who loved learning languages and building his own computers, said FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate.

“But some of the packages his family thought were full of computer parts actually contained drugs he had purchased off the dark net,” Abbate said. “Because of those drugs, that promising young man sadly died of an overdose last year.”

For the first time, FBI agents from all the bureau’s field offices visited buyers to tell them about the overdose danger of pills sold online.

The largest number of arrests, 153,were made in the United States, followed by the United Kingdom with 55 and Germany with 52, according to the European Union law enforcement agency Europol, which coordinated the worldwide operation.

“Our coalition of law enforcement authorities across three continents proves that we all do better when we work together,” Europol’s executive director, Catherine De Bolle, said. “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.”