Europol action against organized crime: Also "cyber-patrols"

Europol has carried out a large-scale operation in south-eastern Europe recently and arrested hundreds of suspects. The focus was on the machinations of criminal networks involved in the trafficking of people, animals, drugs and weapons as well as smuggling gangs. The operation was coordinated from Sarajevo.

As Interpol explicitly emphasizes, there was also a strong focus on the online space, including the clear web, the dark web and social media. These "cyber patrols", as Europol calls them, involved not only law enforcement agencies but also prosecutors from various countries. Europol emphasizes that this significantly increased the efficiency of the operation.

The operation took place in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden, as a Europol spokeswoman confirmed at the request of heise online. Officers were also deployed for the operation in the non-EU countries Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.

30,000 police officers deployed

According to the information provided, around 30,000 police officers were involved. A total of 796 suspects were arrested and 316 new investigations were initiated. The law enforcement officers confiscated 442 weapons. A total of 655,914 checks were carried out on 516,153 people, 152,284 vehicles, 4985 postal parcels and 1181 premises.

The operation took place as part of Europol's EMPACT (European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats) initiative. It is aimed at combating organized crime in Europe, including in the digital domain. In previous activities, for example, the VPN provider VPNLab.net, which enabled cybercriminals to access the network anonymously, was taken offline.

(nen)