Europol: Operation Dragon against the Darknet

[Tomcat]

In the picture you can see the results of the operation. What was taken away.

Operation Dragon is a Europol operation aimed at combating human trafficking, illegal immigration, illegal trafficking in cocaine, heroin, “synthetic drugs”, cybercrime, arms trafficking, forgery, etc.

Europol and Frontex have coordinated the deployment of thousands of law enforcement officers in hundreds of locations since early 2021. A series of targeted events took place from 5 June to 20 October. The purpose of the operation, as Europol wrote in its press release, was to undermine the activities of various organized crime groups and sellers in the aforementioned sectors. Europol provided a summary of the actions taken during the operation. Some of the actions are summarized below.

Airport action day
66 countries, 84 airlines, 230 airports and Eurojust, AMERIPOL, CLASIP, INTERPOL, Frontex, NKFTA and UNODC have launched a global campaign against online ticket fraud.

Europol wrote that fraudulent ticket purchases are often linked to more serious crimes. The joint action began on June 5th and lasted until June 9th. Participants of the action repeated the action from 16 to 20 October. This part of the operation resulted in the arrest of 153 suspects.

* Countries participating in the operation

Cyber Patrol Week
Between June 12 and June 16, 2017, 25 countries completed “the first ever coordinated week of action to combat evolving crime on the Darknet.”

"The action was aimed at combating cybercrime and drug trafficking. More than 40 experts identified about 272 participants in the darknet markets. Law enforcement agencies have selected 73 people to conduct investigations on a wider scale. Europol reportedly found that 42 subjects" intersect "target crime sector.

Large-scale joint action of day-1
All 28 European Union member states, five external countries, CCWP, Interpol, MAOC-N and Europol focused on human trafficking, cocaine trafficking and the checkpoint between October 9-13.

Law enforcement officers have arrested 692 people and opened nearly 400 new drug trafficking investigations. Law enforcement authorities seized:

• 267 kilograms of cocaine
• 19 kg amphetamine
• almost two kilograms of MDMA
• 327 ecstasy tablets.

Large-scale joint action of day-2
Europol, Frontex and 18 countries helped Europol capture 136 firearms between 17 and 18 November, as well as 7,000 rounds of ammunition.

Operation Dragon was not Europol's only operation in 2021. In July, they were caught by 76 suspected fraudsters in a “2021 e-commerce business.” And in May, Europol warned the public that “The Dark Web is an organized crime haven in the EU.”

 

[Brother]

Europol: 12 hackers responsible for 1,800 ransomware attacks arrested​

Europol officials today announced the arrest of 12 people associated with more than 1,800 extortion attacks in 71 countries. The suspects were reportedly the operators of the ransomware LockerGoga, MegaCortex and Dharma.
The arrests took place early this week, October 26, in Ukraine and Switzerland. In simultaneous raids, police seized five luxury vehicles, electronic devices and $ 52,000 in cash. Law enforcement agencies of Norway, France, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA also took part in the investigation.
According to Europol, 12 suspects were part of a professional criminal group and attacked large companies using ransomware since 2019.

“Most of the suspects are considered important targets because they are involved in many high-profile cases in different jurisdictions,” reads a Europol press release. "Some of these criminals have carried out pentests using various methods to compromise IT networks, including brute force attacks, SQL injection, stolen credentials, and phishing emails with malicious attachments."

Having penetrated the network of the target organization, the hackers took their time and spent many months looking for weak points in order to advance further and expand their access. The group has deployed malware such as TrickBot on victims' networks, and also used post-exploitation frameworks, including Cobalt Strike and PowerShell Empire.
It seems that the hackers were partners of several RaaS platforms (Ransomware-as-a-Service) at once, since they later used various ransomware families in their attacks, including LockerGoga, MegaCortex and Dharma.
In addition, Europol reports that some of those arrested did not engage in burglaries, but helped the group launder ransoms from victims.
According to a Norwegian police press release, the 12 suspects were linked to a high-profile attack on Norwegian aluminum company Norsk Hydro in March 2019. Let me remind you that due to this incident, the company's work on two continents was stopped, and production was idle for almost a week.

“More than 50 foreign investigators, including six Europol specialists, were sent to Ukraine to assist the National Police in conducting joint investigative activities. The Ukrainian cyber police officer was also assigned to Europol for two months to prepare for the operation, ”says Europol.

Ukrainian law enforcement officers have also prepared their own press release, in which they say that the damage caused to the victims reaches $ 120 million.