Skip to main content
Back to the takedown index

Operation Endgame

Operation Endgame wave 1

May 2024, Multi threat campaign
Led by Gendarmerie nationale, Bundeskriminalamt, Politie (Netherlands National Police)

Verified core entry, last reviewed August 21, 2026

What was taken down?

More than 100 servers disrupted or taken down; more than 2,000 domains brought under law-enforcement control; 16 location searches.[1][2]

See what happened

What happened to the people?

Officials reported 8 charged, 4 apprehended, and 8 publicly wanted.
Group accounted for: Members remain at large

See people and accountability

Did it stay down?

Not established in the public record. No later activity is recorded against this entry.

See what happened afterward

Coordinated action led by France, Germany, and the Netherlands against the dropper and loader ecosystem that feeds ransomware deployment, disrupting infrastructure for six malware families simultaneously.[1][2]

Announced May 30, 2024.

Date
May 27 to May 29, 2024
Target
IcedID, SystemBC, Pikabot, Smokeloader, Bumblebee, Trickbot, malware dropper ecosystem
Activity
Multi threat campaign, Malware and botnets, Ransomware
Operational lead
French Gendarmerie, BKA, and Dutch National Police
Partners
Europol, Eurojust[1]
Jurisdiction
France, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, United Kingdom, United States, Ukraine, Armenia, Portugal, Bulgaria, and Lithuania
Outcome
More than 100 servers disrupted or taken down; more than 2,000 domains brought under law-enforcement control; 16 location searches.
Status
Completed
Legal mechanism
National judicial orders in France, Germany, and the Netherlands; European Arrest Warrants; Europol and Eurojust coordination
Group accounted for
Members remain at large

Infrastructure

100 servers disabled and 2,000 domains seized.

more than 100
servers disabled
more than 2,000
domains seized
Identifier Recorded as Status Notes
Not published more than 100 servers Disabled More than 100 servers taken down or disrupted across participating countries.[1]
Not published more than 2,000 domains Seized More than 2,000 domains brought under law-enforcement control.[1]

Domains and onion addresses are shown defanged. Where the record gives a count but no identifier, the count is shown in place of one. This list carries only what appears in the cited sources.

No individual is named against this entry in the cited record. That is a gap in what has been published rather than a finding that nobody was involved.

Group accounted for: Members remain at large

German authorities explicitly published a wanted list of suspects who remained at large after the action, establishing remaining members by official statement.

Multiple independent malware crews were targeted; a single finite operator group is not a meaningful denominator for the wave as a whole.

See the organizations and roles behind this action

Followed by wave 2 in May 2025 and wave 3 in November 2025; suspects added to the EU Most Wanted list.[1][2]

Not established in the public record. No later activity is recorded against this entry.

Return class B. The class is a research grading carried in the source dataset and its scale is not published, so this page relies on the relationship and confidence values instead. How this index handles it.

Numbered markers throughout this entry link to the source that supports the claim beside them.

Official sources

  1. [1]
    Largest ever operation against botnets hits dropper malware ecosystem

    Europol, May 30, 2024, Source grade P2

    Wave 1 infrastructure figures, initiating countries, arrests

    No address recorded for this source. Publisher, title, and date are given so it can be retrieved from the publisher.

  2. [2]
    Bundeskriminalamt statement and wanted list published for Operation Endgame

    Bundeskriminalamt, May 30, 2024, Source grade P1

    Named suspects remaining at large, German lead role

    No address recorded for this source. Publisher, title, and date are given so it can be retrieved from the publisher.

Coverage note.
  • One main suspect was alleged to have earned at least 69 million EUR in cryptocurrency.
  • Arrests: one in Armenia and three in Ukraine, not publicly named in the announcement.
  • Charged count reflects suspects publicly listed as wanted or charged by German authorities; the figure is contested across reporting and is not harmonized here.