U.S. strikes at 'Dark Net': Seizes $1 million and arrests 17

Over 400 hidden internet sites, including the infamous drug selling and trading website Silk Road 2.0, have been shut down in a joint operation between the United States and 16 European nations.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - These sites are charged with being havens for the trading of illegal goods, like firearms, drugs and other weapons.

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Part of the Tor network, these websites are not accessible through traditional search engine means.

In the multinational operations, there were 17 arrests, including the man behind Silk Road 2.0, Blake Benthall.

Some experts believe that this shutdown represents a major breath through in the fight against cybercrime.

Tor does host legitimate sites, but it is home to thousands of illegal marketplaces which trade everything from drugs, to child pornography. Some of these websites are even forums for extremist groups.

In 2013, the first Silk Road website was taken down, just the first step in a long battle against the criminal use of the dark net.

But people should be aware that the dark net is not just used for illegal activity. Actually, Tor, the most widely known tool for browsing these secretive sites, was actually created by a U.S. intelligence agency to help operations and assist people who were living under repressive, internet restricting, regimes.

Silk Road 2.0 was launched in October, 2013, just after the first Silk Road was shut down and its owner, Ross William Ulbricht, arrested.

During the operation, about $1 million worth of Bitcoins were also siezed.

"Today we have demonstrated that, together, we are able to efficiently remove vital criminal infrastructures that are supporting serious organized crime," Troels Oerting, head of Europol's European cybercrime center said.

"And we are not 'just' removing these services from the open internet; this time we have also hit services on the dark net using Tor where, for a long time, criminals have considered themselves beyond reach."

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