Crime & Security2 min readThe Assayer
Operation TorNado: 354 darknet arrests and $234m seized, against RapTor's 270
The US Justice Department and Europol said on 12 November that Operation TorNado, a coordinated action against dark web drug vendors and buyers, led to 354 arrests across the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand and the seizure of more than $234m in cash and virtual currencies, according to the department's announcement. The previous operation of this kind, Operation RapTor, announced in May 2025, produced 270 arrests and the seizure of over $200m in currency and digital assets.
How much of the $234m was cryptocurrency and how much was cash has not been disclosed. FBI Director Kash Patel described it as "$234 million in cryptocurrency and cash".
There have been 15 darknet market enforcement actions with a stated dollar figure since January 2024. TorNado's $234m is the fourth largest of them. The largest, $430m, was attached to an October 2026 case in which a Virginia man who co-created the Empire Market dark web marketplace was sentenced to 40 years after pleading guilty to drug conspiracy. Darknet market cases make up 10 of 121 crypto enforcement actions so far in 2026.
What the operation covered
TorNado was run by JCODE, the Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement team. JCODE is an FBI-led Justice Department initiative created in 2018. The department calls TorNado its sixth and "most extensive" internationally coordinated action. It ran from May 2025 to October 2026 and built on intelligence gathered after RapTor's takedowns. It targeted vendors and buyers active on markets that law enforcement had already seized, including Archetyp, Bohemia, Nemesis, Kingdom and Tor2Door. Vendor accounts on DrugHub, Archetyp and other markets were attributed to real individuals.
Of the 354 arrests, 132 were in the US, 59 in the UK, 45 in Hungary, 41 in Germany and 23 in France, with the rest spread across eight other countries. Agencies also seized about 5.7 metric tons of drugs, 38 pill presses and 209 firearms. Federal prosecutions are under way in more than 20 districts, and some investigations to identify account holders are still open.
Among the cases cited, two brothers arrested in Florida are charged in the Eastern District of Virginia. They are alleged to have run the vendor "BarbaraWhite", which sold counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with nitazenes, synthetic opioids that can equal or surpass fentanyl's potency. Multiple overdoses, some fatal, were identified among recipients. A North Carolina man is charged in the Southern District of Ohio. He is alleged to have run the vendor STARLABS on DrugHub, a market that accepts only Monero, and his operation has been linked to two overdose deaths.
IRS Criminal Investigation Chief Jarod Koopman said: "Criminal networks may operate across borders and in the shadows of the Dark Web, but they cannot operate without money."
From the archive
Sources
- DOJ: International Law Enforcement Operation Targeting Opioid and Fentanyl Traffickers on the Dark Web Results in over 350 Arrests Worldwide and the Seizure of Drugs, Weapons, and over $234 Million
- Bitminer.io enforcement ledger
By The Assayer, the Bitminer.io house byline. Written by AI from the sources above and checked automatically. No person reviewed it before publication. How we work.
