Cybercrime
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Fraud Management & Cybercrime
Global Collaboration Leads to Drug, Firearm Bust

U.S. and European officials Thursday touted a global operation to disrupt the criminal darkweb, announcing the arrest of 270 accused darkweb vendors and buyers across 10 countries.
See Also: Why Cyberattackers Love ‘Living Off the Land’
“Operation RapTor” – a play on the Tor network underpinning the darkweb – additionally resulted in the confiscation of more than $200 million in currency and digital assets and seizure of more than two metric tons of drugs and 144 kilograms of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The FBI announced the April arrest of four individuals in a Los Angeles apartment the bureau called “a hub for one of the most prolific methamphetamine and cocaine distributors on the darknet.”
It’s been more than a decade since Ross “Dread Pirate Roberts” Ulbricht initiated an era of online criminal bazaars that use the anonymity-bestowing properties of the Tor network. Based on research funded by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Tor mainly delivers on its promise of hiding users’ IP addresses. The lifespan of most online marketplaces for illicit goods nonetheless is usually measured in years as OpSec errors pile up and police trace real-world deliveries of drugs or match cryptocurrency transactions to real identities.
“This record-breaking operation sends a clear message to every trafficker hiding behind a screen – your anonymity ends where our global reach begins,” said Acting Director Todd Lyons of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement .
A breakdown of the 270 arrests made during the operation from Europol shows roughly half occurred in the United States, followed by 42 in Germany and 37 in the United Kingdom.
Law enforcement pressure on large-scale illicit marketplaces has triggered a shift in illicit marketplaces to “smaller, single-vendor shops – sites run by individual sellers to avoid marketplace fees and minimize exposure,” Europol said.
Justice officials said Operation RapTor included the May 2024 arrest of Rui-Siang Lin, also known as “Pharoah.” Lin owned and operated the Incognito Market, an operation that over the course of more than three years facilitated the sale of more than $100 million in narcotics. Lin pleaded guilty in December to narcotics conspiracy, money laundering and conspiracy to sell adulterated and misbranded medication.
Officials emphasized the involvement and importance of digital forensics in the takedowns, citing cryptocurrency tracing tools and cross-border intelligence sharing as the two primary tactics that helped break down the walls of darkweb anonymity.
Operation RapTor is a successor to an earlier effort dubbed Operation SpecTor that racked up 288 arrests, confiscation of $53.4 million and the seizure of 850 kilograms of drugs (see: Police Arrest Shuttered Monopoly Market Drug Sellers).