Laurence Dollimore
A COMBINED operation of police forces around Europe have shut down a Dark Web weapons business run out of Spain.
Using dark Web ALPHABAY MARKET, a young man from Pamplona sent dozens of guns all around Europe and even the US.
Police raided his house and found huge arsenal.
The weapons came from Slovakia, the same place that supplied weapons in the 2015 Paris attacks.
Some weapons were sent to the UK where they were seized as well as Germany where a man shot himself the same day he got the guns.
The unnamed 24-year-old Spanish man, who has been arrested, had an enviable life, including buying a yacht he kept in a marina in Barcelona.
The raid, as part of operation RUGER, has been described as one of the biggest international blows at the international level to the illegal business on the Dark Web.
The investigation, which began in March, has been described as ‘meticulous’ and invovled Germany, UK, US and Europol.
Five buyers of the young man have also been arrested.
Dark Web users use Tor software that installs into your browser and sets up the specific connections you need to access dark Web sites.
Tor is an encrypted technology that helps people maintain anonymity online.
It does this in part by routing connections through servers around the world, making them much harder to track.
It allows for the sale of drugs, weapons and even murder online as the buyers remain anonymous.
