Operation TorNado ends with 354 arrests and $234M seized

Law enforcement across 14 countries wrapped up Operation TorNado, a darknet drug sweep that ended in 354 arrests and the seizure of roughly $234 million in cash and crypto. Authorities rolled out the results on November 12, 2026, after running the operation from May 2025 through October 2026.

The Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement team, known as JCODE, is calling it the biggest takedown in the group's history. Alongside the money, investigators pulled in about 5.7 metric tons of drugs — a large chunk of it fentanyl — plus 209 firearms.

The United States did the heaviest lifting. American authorities booked 132 arrests, grabbed 4.8 metric tons of drugs and confiscated $166 million in assets on home soil. European law enforcement took nearly 1 metric ton of drugs and more than €60 million in cash and crypto, with the remaining arrests spread across several other countries.

TorNado didn't just go after sellers. Buyers were in the crosshairs too, all of them active on dark web marketplaces that police had already compromised. The stated target: opioid trafficking networks whose customer base reportedly reached tens of thousands of American buyers.

This wasn't a solo act. TorNado follows the same playbook as two earlier JCODE pushes — Operation SpecTor in 2023 and Operation RapTor in 2025 — built on cross-border coordination, marketplace infiltration and mass arrests. Crypto sits at the middle of the story because it's how darknet markets run, and the scale of the haul shows a public blockchain leaves a trail that multiple countries are now comfortable following.

The research behind the report backs law enforcement's growing ability to trace and cut off financial flows tied to drug trafficking. It also points to a stubborn problem: dark web marketplaces have a history of bouncing back after every crackdown.