Europol announced on Tuesday that a global operation to combat illegal trading on the dark web resulted in the arrests of 288 people and the seizure of approximately €51 million in cash and virtual currency. The authorities of nine countries closed the illegal platform “Monopoly Market”, detained suspects of involvement in the purchase or sale of drugs through this portal.

Most of the arrests were made in Great Britain, News.ro reports.

A number of investigations are still ongoing to identify other people behind the accounts on the dark web. With law enforcement gaining access to sellers’ extensive buyer lists, thousands of customers around the world are now at risk of prosecution, Europol said.

More than 50.8 million euros ($55.7 million) in cash and virtual currency, 850 kilograms of drugs and 117 firearms were seized, Europol said in a statement. Among the seized drugs were more than 258 kg of amphetamines, 43 kg of cocaine, 43 kg of MDMA and more than 10 kg of LSD and ecstasy pills.

The operation, codenamed SpecTor, involved coordinated actions by the competent authorities of Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Switzerland.

This seizure followed a German police operation in 2021. “Europol has compiled intelligence packages based on valuable evidence provided by the German authorities,” Europol said. That information “has been used as the basis for hundreds of national investigations,” the agency added.

Arrests were made across the European Union – including 52 in Germany, ten in the Netherlands and five in France, as well as in the UK (158), the US (55) and one person was arrested in Brazil.

According to Europol, some of the arrested dealers “were also active in other illicit markets”, noting that some of them were “high value” targets and hailing the new operation which “makes drug trafficking even more difficult and illicit goods chain”.

This new operation, carried out across three continents, “sends a serious message to criminals on the dark web,” Europol executive director Catherine De Bolle was quoted as saying in a statement. “International law enforcement agencies have the means and capabilities to identify and prosecute you for your illegal activities, even on the dark web,” she warned.

The dark web, a parallel version of the Internet where user anonymity is guaranteed, has been under increasing attack by international police in recent years.

Hydra Market, a dark web platform that is said to be the “largest illegal market in the world” with sales of €1.23 billion in 2020 alone, was dismantled in 2022. After Hydra was shut down, German authorities seized €23 million in cryptocurrencies.

By 2021, Operation DarkHunTOR had arrested 150 people worldwide for buying or selling drugs or weapons on the dark web.

Europol also announced last month the closure of Genesis, one of the world’s largest invitation-only hacking platforms that sold millions of stolen credentials.

Based in The Hague, Netherlands, Europol supports the 27 EU Member States in their fight against terrorism, cybercrime and other serious and organized crime. It also cooperates with numerous partner states outside the EU and international organizations.