300 arrested in global crackdown on dark web drug market

By MIKE CORDER and LINDSAY WHITEHURST
Associated Press

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Authorities in the U.S. and Europe have arrested nearly 300 people and seized over $53 million in the latest major takedown of a dark web marketplace. Most of the arrests in the operation targeting the “Monopoly Market” were made in the U.S., as well as Germany and the United Kingdom. They also seized firearms and drugs that included fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics. The U.S. is in the grips of an overdose crisis. Synthetic opioids, mostly fentanyl, kill more Americans every year than died in the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined. The FBI said investigators got leads in the case from local police investigating overdose deaths.