(Credit for Photo: Photo Provided with Release Courtesy of the United States Deaprtment of Justice

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Washington, D.C.) The Department of Justice, through the Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement (JCODE) team, joined Europol yesterday to announce the results of Operation TorNado, which is a coordinated, multi‑agency and international law enforcement effort targeting criminal enterprises that use Dark Web markets to traffic fentanyl, opioids, and other illicit drugs.

This operation was conducted across the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

It included actions against Dark Web vendors and buyers that were active on prominent Dark Web drug markets seized by law enforcement which included: Archetyp, Bohemia, Nemesis, Kingdom, and Tor2Door.

Operation TorNado actions have resulted in the arrest of 354 Dark Web drug traffickers and fraudulent criminals that engaged in tens of thousands of sales of illicit goods and services across the United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.

The operation resulted in the seizure of over $234 million in both cash and virtual currencies, approximately 5.7 metric tons of illicit drugs worldwide, and these included fentanyl and other opioids, cocaine, ecstasy, heroin, methamphetamine, and MDMA, as well as 38 pill presses and 209 firearms.