An international operation against dark-web narcotics markets has produced 354 arrests across 13 countries and the seizure of more than $234 million in cash and virtual currencies, US authorities and Europol announced on 12 November.
Operation TorNado combined separate investigations that grew from intelligence obtained after earlier marketplace takedowns. It targeted vendors and buyers active on services including Archetyp, Bohemia, Nemesis, Kingdom and Tor2Door. The campaign ran from May 2025 to October 2026, so the announcement is a consolidated account rather than a claim that every arrest occurred on one day.
The United States recorded 132 arrests. The remaining arrests were reported in Australia, Austria, Czechia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. Authorities also seized about 5.7 metric tonnes of drugs, including fentanyl and other opioids, methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine, together with 38 pill presses and 209 firearms.
Several US prosecutions described with the operation remain at the allegation stage. They include charges against two brothers accused of operating the “BarbaraWhite” vendor account and mailing counterfeit oxycodone pills containing nitazenes, and a North Carolina man accused of running the STARLABS drug-trafficking organisation. None of those defendants may be treated as guilty unless the government proves its case or a plea is entered.
The operation was coordinated through the Justice Department’s Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement team and Europol. Investigations remain open, including work to identify the people behind additional vendor accounts.
The legal significance of the announcement is therefore mixed: it records completed arrests and seizures while also describing active prosecutions and investigations whose outcomes remain unresolved.
The Justice Department’s operation summary links to the relevant US court documents.
