Germany at center of cybercrime crackdown
February 29, 2016
Nine people were arrested and 69 properties were searched as part of a Europe-wide crackdown on illegal online businesses, police confirmed on Monday.
The targets were primarily German-speaking cybercrime platforms, and the majority of the arrests were made in Germany. Other countries targeted included Lithuania, Russia, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The raids are part of an ongoing effort to tackle the growing problem of illegal businesses on the so-called darknet, a platform that allows criminals to sell drugs, weapons, counterfeit money and illegal documents.
The suspect at the center of the raids is a 27-year-old man from Bosnia-Herzegovina, who was arrested last Wednesday. Two German nationals were among those arrested. They were detained in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony.
Authorities also confiscated computers, storage devices and some 150,000 euros ($163,522).
blc/kms (dpa, AFP)