The RapTor police operation, coordinated by Europol and directed against online drug and criminal networks, strikes hundreds of sellers and buyers of the dark web across four continents.

This international operation has dismantled drug, arms and counterfeit goods trafficking networks, sending a clear warning to criminals hiding behind the illusion of anonymity. The suspects were identified through coordinated investigations, based on intelligence from the takedowns of dark web marketplaces Nemesis, Tor2Door, Bohemia and Kingdom Markets.

This international action follows Operation SpecTor in 2023, which led to the arrest of 288 suspects. All of these operations show law enforcement’s growing ability to delve into the secrecy of the dark web.
The 270 arrests took place in the following countries: 130 people were arrested in the United States, 42 in Germany, 37 in the United Kingdom, 29 in France, 19 in South Korea, 4 in Austria, 4 in the Netherlands, 3 in Brazil, 1 in Switzerland and 1 in Spain.

Apart from the arrests, officers seized more than €184 million in cash and cryptocurrencies; more than 2 tonnes of drugs – amphetamines, cocaine, ketamine, opioids and cannabis; more than 180 firearms, along with imitation weapons, tasers and knives; 12,500 counterfeit products and more than 4 tonnes of illegal tobacco.

These seizures represent a major disruption of the criminal supply chains that feed the economy of the dark web.

Europol supported the police action by compiling and analysing intelligence packages based on data from the three targeted markets. These packages were shared with national authorities in the framework of the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce at Europol headquarters to enable targeted investigations.

This operational model, also used in the 2023 SpecTor operation, shows that the takedown of a criminal platform is not the end of the story, but the beginning of follow-up investigations aimed at identifying and arresting high-value vendors.

Operation RapTor demonstrates that the dark web is not beyond the reach of law enforcement, even if criminals operate online and offline, internationally and locally, or make maximum use of technological resources. Coordinated action is essential to tackle it. And this is the added value that Europol provides.

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