Operation TorNado: 354 Arrests and $234 Million Seized in 14-Country Dark Web Drug Sweep

Law enforcement agencies in 14 countries announced today, Nov. 12, the results of Operation TorNado: 354 arrests, more than 5.7 metric tons of illicit drugs, 209 firearms and more than $234 million in cash and cryptocurrency.

The operation ran from May 2025 through October 2026. The FBI-led Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement team, known as JCODE, and Europol both published results.

Officials describe it as the largest takedown yet of dark web drug vendors and buyers. The Justice Department called it the sixth internationally coordinated JCODE action since the team was created in 2018, and the most extensive.

The numbers

The U.S. share was the biggest. American authorities made 132 arrests, seized more than 4.8 metric tons of drugs and 152 firearms, and took in about $166 million (more than €150 million) in cash and crypto.

Europe accounted for most of the rest. Europol put the European haul at roughly 950 kilograms of drugs, 57 firearms and more than €60 million in cash and cryptocurrency.

Outside the U.S., the UK had 59 arrests, Hungary 45 and Germany 41. Five people were arrested in Ireland.

The seized drugs included fentanyl and other opioids, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and MDMA. Investigators also took 38 pill presses. European seizures included 150 kilograms of amphetamines in Germany, 150 kilograms of ketamine in the UK, 40 kilograms of MDMA in the Netherlands and 50 kilograms of cannabis in France, plus more than one million prescription tablets.

Neither the Justice Department nor Europol has broken the $234 million into cash and crypto, and neither named a specific coin in the totals. Europol said its forensic and blockchain analysis teams traced illicit transactions as part of the work.

Buyers were targets too

TorNado went after customers as well as sellers. The targets were vendors and buyers active on five dark web markets that law enforcement had already seized: Archetyp, Bohemia, Nemesis, Kingdom and Tor2Door. Officials also identified accounts on DrugHub, on forums, in single-vendor shops and on encrypted messaging services.

FBI Deputy Director Christopher Raia said at a press conference that the operation "confronted one of the most urgent public safety threats of our time, the trafficking of fentanyl and other deadly drugs through the dark web." He said FBI teams worked with Homeland Security Task Forces across the U.S. for more than a year.

In one U.S. search, investigators from the FBI, NCIS, the Postal Inspection Service, the DEA and the FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations seized a pill press, about 200 grams of methamphetamine and more than two kilograms of counterfeit pills.

The cases behind the totals

The Justice Department highlighted two prosecutions. Both are allegations. Neither defendant has been convicted.

Alexander Green, 32, of Jacksonville, North Carolina, was arrested in June and charged in the Southern District of Ohio with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, including fentanyl. The department alleges he ran a vendor called STARLABS on DrugHub, which it described as a Monero-only market. It says the vendor has been linked to two overdose deaths in Ohio. A criminal complaint says undercover purchases from STARLABS were made with cryptocurrency. Green faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

In Florida, brothers Stanislav Chernyshov, 30, and Vladislav Chernyshov, 35, are charged in the Eastern District of Virginia with conspiracy to distribute Schedule I synthetic opioids. Prosecutors allege they ran a vendor called BarbaraWhite that sold counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with nitazenes and shipped more than 1,000 parcels to 49 states. A search-warrant affidavit describes bitcoin transfers tied to the account and to the Nemesis market.

A pattern of rebuilds

TorNado follows Operation DisrupTor in 2020, Dark HunTor in 2021, SpecTor in 2023 and RapTor in 2025. Every round has ended with arrests and seizures. Every round has also been followed by new markets.

Europe's own police agency says so. Europol's statement said that "dark web marketplaces continue to adapt despite takedowns."

That is the open question for TorNado. The five markets at the center of this operation are already gone, and DrugHub accounts were among those flagged. Whether the next set of markets draws the same vendors and buyers is not something officials have claimed to answer.

Officials say investigations remain underway in several countries to identify more people operating behind anonymous accounts. The Green and Chernyshov cases are still pending in federal court.