Map Shows Global Dark Web Crackdown as FBI Announces Arrests

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Hundreds of arrests have been made following an operation targeting dark web drug traffickers that spanned 14 countries, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced on…

Hundreds of arrests have been made following an operation targeting dark web drug traffickers that spanned 14 countries, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced on Thursday.

Some 354 arrests took place, 132 of which were in the United States, while more than 5.7 metric tons of illicit drugs, more than $234 million in cryptocurrency and cash and 209 firearms were seized in what has been dubbed Operation TorNado, the FBI said.

The initiative to confront “one of the most urgent public safety threats of our time,” including the distribution of fentanyl, comes as the opioid drug continues to drive a deadly U.S. overdose crisis.

FBI Deputy Director Christopher Raia said the operation, which ran from May 2025 to October 2026, illustrates the “real world consequences of illegal online drug sales,” citing two suspected overdose deaths in Ohio that his teams were able to trace to a web drug vendor operating out of North Carolina.

The FBI’s Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement team (JCODE) took part in Operation TorNado, along with the European Union’s law enforcement agency (Europol), and law enforcement partners in Australia and New Zealand.

International collaboration is the “best way” to “fight this head-on,” JCODE unit chief Christopher Lin said. “We’re going after the big fish—not just the street-level dealers.”

After the United States’ majority, 59 arrests took place in the United Kingdom, followed by 45 in Hungary, 41 in Germany and 23 in France.

New Zealand saw 13 arrests, the Netherlands 12, Slovenia 11, Austria six and Ireland five. The Czech Republic (four arrests), Australia (two) and Finland (one) accounted for the least.

Montenegro also participated in Operation TorNado, according to Europol, but it recorded no arrests, just a “knock and talk.”

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