US and European officials said Tuesday that an international campaign targeting opioid smuggling over a secret part of the Internet called the darknet has led to nearly 150 arrests and seizures of drugs, cash and guns in the United States and Europe.
The action, called Operation Dark Hunter, was announced at a US Justice Department news conference, where Deputy US Attorney General Lisa Monaco warned cyberspace drug dealers: “There is no dark internet. We can and we will shed a light.” “
Jean-Philippe Lakoff, deputy director of the international police agency Europol, described the results of Operation Dark Hunter as “fantastic”. He said the operation sends a message that “no one is out of the reach of law enforcement, even on the dark web.” Darknet and dark web are terms related to a part of the Internet that is accessible only using a particular web browser and an assortment of Internet sites residing there.
An opioid epidemic has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives in the United States alone over the past two decades, overdosing on prescription painkillers and illicit substances that constitute an enduring public health crisis.
The Dark Hunter operation led to the arrest of 150 people on charges of being drug traffickers and others charged with being involved in the sale of illegal goods and services.
The Justice Department said 65 arrests were made in the United States, 47 in Germany, 24 in the United Kingdom, four each in the Netherlands and Italy, three in France, two in Switzerland and one in Bulgaria.
The department said the operation resulted in the seizure of more than $31.6 million in cash and virtual currencies as well as 45 firearms. It said that about 234 kilograms (515 pounds) of drugs, including more than 200,000 ecstasy, fentanyl, oxycodone, hydrocodone and methamphetamine pills, were confiscated along with the counterfeit drugs.
Kenneth Polite, the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, said such trafficking “is a global threat and requires a global response.”
The Justice Department said the action was taken on campaigns conducted in late 2020 and early 2021 to disrupt dark web trafficking. It said that in January, an international crackdown targeted DarkMarket, the world’s largest dark web international marketplace.
(Reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by Will Dunham)
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