Finnish police arrested three people and seized more than €1.1 million (US$ 1.2 million) worth of drugs in a crackdown on an online narcotics operation described as the country’s biggest to date, authorities announced Friday.

The network is alleged to have imported €2 million (US$ 2.2 million) worth of drugs between 2014 and 2016, selling them on the dark web site Silkkitie.

More than 40 kilograms of powdered narcotics, such as amphetamine, heroin and cocaine, as well as 40,000 ecstasy tablets and 30,000 LSD blotters were smuggled into Finland from the Netherlands and Germany, and then sold on the site.

Customers and sellers communicated using pseudonyms and encrypted messaging in order to avoid detection, and sales were conducted using the online cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Sellers stored the drugs in secret caches or sent them by post.

As part of the investigation, customs officers in April seized at least €1.1 million worth of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA and ecstasy in the coastal town of Kustavi. The same month, police arrested three Finnish citizens.

Founded in Finland in 2013, Silkkitie has become one of the world’s most popular dark web drug sites, operating internationally under the name Valhalla.

The network allegedly imported €2 million in drugs (Photo: Craig Dietrich CC BY 2.0)
occrp.org