On Tuesday, Europol, the European Union’s police agency, he announced the arrest of 288 people in an extensive operation against the sale of drugs on the so-called dark web, the part of the Internet accessible with particular programs and more difficult to control by the authorities. The arrests were made by the police forces of the individual countries involved in the investigation: Europol in fact, he does not have the power to arrest suspects directly, but provides national authorities with the information they need to do so.
The operation, called SpecTor and considered one of the most extensive among those carried out by Europol, involved nine European and non-European countries: most of the arrests were carried out in the United States (153), and the rest in the United Kingdom ( 55), in Germany (52), in the Netherlands (10), in Austria (9), in France (5), in Switzerland (2), in Poland (1) and in Brazil (1). The investigation is still ongoing and could lead to further arrests. Nearly 51 million euros in cash and virtual currencies were also seized during the operation, as well as 850 kilos of drugs and 117 firearms.