288 arrests made in international drug takedown
Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Friday, April 14, 2023, on significant international drug trafficking enforcement action.
A consortium of U.S. and international law enforcement made 288 arrests and seized over $53 million in cash and crypto as part of a dark-web drug "unprecedented" enforcement action called Operation SpecTor, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a press conference Tuesday.
"The Justice Department is cracking down on criminal cryptocurrency transactions," Garland said, "and the online criminal marketplaces that enable them."
Dozens of firearms and more than 850 kilograms of drugs were also seized in Operation SpecTor, an allusion to the dark-web browsing protocol. The operation was coordinated alongside Europol and resulted in the seizure of a dark-web marketplace called Monopoly Market, according to a press release from the European agency.
The operation began in Oct. 2021, Garland said.
Source: CNBC
