Coordinated by Europol under the codename SpecTor, the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency, and National Police Chiefs’ Council along with law enforcement agencies from eight other countries seized the illegal marketplace called “Monopoly Market”.

288 suspects involved in the illegal drug trade through the dark web were arrested as part of the shutdown.

The dark web is an overlay network in the internet that can only be accessed with specific authorisation and software, often with a unique communication protocol. 

The German authorities seized the marketplace’s criminal infrastructure in late 2021, and worked with Europol to compile intelligence packages based on this evidence. These target packages, created by cross-matching and analysing the collected data, served as the basis for hundreds of national investigations around the world. 

Of the 288 vendors and buyers found engaging in tens of thousands of sales of illicit goods, 55 of them were in the UK. The second highest number of arrests from this operation after the United States, the rest of the arrests taking place across Europe, and one in Brazil. Europol says that many of the suspects were high-value targets, and many were also active on other dark web marketplaces. 

Catherine De Bolle, Executive Director of Europol commented: “Our coalition of law enforcement authorities across three continents proves that we all do better when we work together. 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.”

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Through the investigation, Europol gained access to vendors’ buyers lists making thousands of customers vulnerable to prosecution as well. 

In the lead up to operation SpecTor, German and U.S authorities also shut down the highest grossing dark web market – ‘Hydra’ – in April of 2022. Hydra had an estimated revenue of €1.23 billion (£1.08bn). 

More recently, the UK’s national crime agency participated in the shutdown of dark web marketplace ‘Genesis’, which saw 120 arrests take place across the globe, 24 of which were in the UK.