Five Arrests in Ireland as Europol’s Operation TorNado Targets Dark Web Markets
Five arrests were made in Ireland as part of Operation TorNado, an international operation targeting dark web drug, firearms and cybercrime networks.
Five people have been arrested in Ireland as part of Operation TorNado, a coordinated international effort that identified vendors and buyers from major dark web marketplaces. The operation resulted in 354 arrests worldwide.
Europol worked with law enforcement agencies from 14 countries on the operation, which targeted cybercrime, drug trafficking and firearms offences. It ran from May 2025 to October 2026, and hundreds of house searches were carried out worldwide.
In Ireland, the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau took part in the operation.
The effort included a follow-up action to identify suspects after five major dark marketplaces were taken down: Archetyp, Bohemia, Nemesis, Kingdom and Tor2Door. Law enforcement also targeted vendors and buyers active on forums, single-vendor shops and encrypted messaging services.
National authorities ran their own investigations with Europol’s support, including cross-checks through SIENA and forensic analysis.
The United States recorded the most arrests at 132, followed by the United Kingdom with 59, Hungary with 45 and Germany with 41. France made 23 arrests, New Zealand 13, the Netherlands 12, Slovenia 11, Austria six and Czechia four. Australia and Finland each made one arrest, and Finland also conducted 159 interrogations. Montenegro carried out one so-called “knock and talk”, where officers visit a home and ask to speak with the people living there.
Authorities in European countries seized 950 kilograms of illicit drugs in total. The largest quantities were 150 kilograms of amphetamines in Germany, 150 kilograms of ketamine in the United Kingdom, 40 kilograms of MDMA in the Netherlands and 50 kilograms of cannabis in France. Cocaine was also seized.
Other seizures included psilocybin mushrooms, known as magic mushrooms, vapes containing THC and more than one million prescription tablets. In addition, 57 firearms and ammunition were seized, along with over €60 million in cash and cryptocurrencies.
In the United States, over 4.8 metric tonnes of illicit drugs, 152 firearms and over €150 million (USD 166 million) in cash and cryptocurrencies were seized.
Europol provided on-the-spot support through deployments in Czechia and Slovenia. It also coordinated cases to stop investigations overlapping, and its forensic and blockchain analysis teams traced illicit transactions.
Operation TorNado builds on earlier operations RapTor (2025), SpecTor (2023), Dark Huntor (2021) and DisrupTor (2020).
Europol said the operation highlighted how dark web marketplaces continue to adapt despite takedowns. Its Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA) 2026 found that marketplaces are breaking up into platforms that specialise in specific criminal activities. Dark web forums and encrypted messaging services are blurring the lines between surface and dark web communication, and criminals quickly move to new platforms when markets are shut down.
