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Law enforcement agencies in several European countries recently carried out coordinated operations against an online platform that had long provided anonymous communications services to transnational criminal organisations. Coordinated by Europol, police in Austria, Estonia, Finland and Latvia arrested seven principal suspects and seized substantial equipment and evidence at multiple locations.
Police found approximately 1,200 SIM-box devices used for sending text messages in bulk, seized more than 40,000 active SIM cards, and took control of several servers and websites supporting illegal business. Authorities also froze €431,000 in funds linked to the case and seized US$333,000 worth of cryptocurrency and several luxury vehicles, largely cutting off the network's financial and technical support.
Investigators said the group had long used SIM equipment to provide anonymous communications channels to criminal organisations worldwide, allowing fraud, cyberattacks and other crimes to evade tracing and causing economic losses in multiple countries. The European Cybercrime Centre said the joint operation had effectively dismantled its operating network and demonstrated the strength of cross-border law enforcement cooperation against emerging cybercrime.
Compiled by this station.
