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Operation SpecTor

May 2023, Darknet market

Extended pass entry, last reviewed August 21, 2026

What was taken down?

No new infrastructure seizure; operation used previously seized Monopoly Market data/evidence to support arrests.

See what happened

What happened to the people?

Officials reported 288 apprehended.
Group accounted for: Not applicable

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

A Europol-coordinated multinational operation used intelligence from the covert 2021 Monopoly Market seizure to conduct a large sweep of darknet-market vendors and buyers across Europe, the US, UK, and Brazil.

Date
May 2023
Target
Multiple darknet-market vendors and buyers (Monopoly Market intelligence), darknet market
Activity
Darknet market
Operational lead
Not established
Partners
Europol, DEA[1]
Jurisdiction
Not established
Outcome
No new infrastructure seizure; operation used previously seized Monopoly Market data/evidence to support arrests.
Status
Completed
Legal mechanism
National arrest warrants across participating jurisdictions.
Group accounted for
Not applicable

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: Not applicable

Operation targeted a cross-section of vendors and buyers rather than a single bounded operator group.

See the organizations and roles behind this action

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

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

Official sources

  1. [1]
    Operation SpecTor: 288 dark web vendors arrested worldwide

    Europol, May 2, 2023, Source grade P2

    Establishes the 288-arrest figure, seized cash/virtual currency, drugs, and firearms.

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

Coverage note. Added from deep-research aggregation pass. Not independently re-verified source-by-source to the same standard as the original 38-incident core; source_quality capped at S2/P2 pending a dedicated verification pass.