Arrests were made around the world, of which 155 were in the United States. It was also removed during the operation $53.4 million in cash and digital currency, 850 kilograms of drugs and 117 firearms worldwide. The USA, England, Austria, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Brazil and Switzerland participated in the operation.

Details of Operation SpecTor

Monopoly Market has been operating on the darknet, serving as a hub for drug trafficking since 2019. Europol states that German authorities destroyed the site’s criminal infrastructure in 2021, which has formed the basis of hundreds of investigations across the country. Law enforcement also obtained buyer lists from the site’s illegal sellers, which led to the arrests of thousands more involved in the drug trade.

• The success of the SpecTor operation came just months after international law enforcement searched the homes of people suspected of being linked to a cybercrime group that stole millions of dollars from large corporations and hospitals.
• Last year, Germany confiscated 23 million euros worth of Bitcoin, shutting down the servers of the notorious Russian darknet market Hydra.
• In 2021, international authorities jointly shut down one of the largest online dark markets, DarkMarket, resulting in the arrest of 150 alleged drug dealers.

US Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement:

Operation SpecTor was an international operation coordinated by law enforcement on three continents to stop illegal drug trafficking on the dark web and is the largest in terms of funds seized and the number of arrests.

The success of Operation SpecTor shows that international cooperation has made significant progress in the fight against the Internet distribution of drugs, which is increasingly being resorted to by drug traffickers and hackers.