Operation TorNado: 354 Arrested in Dark Web Drug Sweep, 132 of Them in the United States

The Justice Department announced on Thursday that a coordinated international operation against dark web drug markets has ended with 354 arrests worldwide, including 132 in the United States, and the seizure of more than $234 million in cash and cryptocurrency.

The operation, called TorNado, ran from May 2025 to October 2026 and targeted vendors and buyers who sold fentanyl, opioids and other drugs on dark web markets, the department said. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the results at a press conference in Washington alongside Europol, the European Union police agency.

What investigators seized

Authorities seized about 5.7 metric tons of illicit drugs worldwide, including fentanyl and other opioids, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and MDMA, the Justice Department said. They also seized 38 pill presses and 209 firearms. The money seized, more than $234 million, was a mix of cash and virtual currency.

The vendors had sold on dark web markets that law enforcement has since taken down, including Archetyp, Bohemia, Nemesis, Kingdom and Tor2Door, and on a market called DrugHub, according to the department. Investigators said the sellers completed tens of thousands of sales of illicit goods and services before their accounts were tied to real people.

The US cases

Federal prosecutions are running in more than 20 districts across the United States. In Florida, brothers Stanislav Chernyshov, 30, and Vladislav Chernyshov, 35, were arrested for allegedly running a vendor account called BarbaraWhite, which prosecutors say sold counterfeit oxycodone M30 pills laced with nitazenes, synthetic opioids that can match or exceed the strength of fentanyl. Investigators tied the brothers to more than one thousand parcels shipped across 49 states, and say some recipients suffered fatal and non-fatal overdoses. Each brother faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

In California, Jonatan Gonzales, 35, of South Bakersfield was charged after investigators identified him as a vendor called SpeedyPharma. Agents who searched his home seized 48 pounds of methamphetamine, 588 grams of cocaine, 386 grams of black tar heroin, small amounts of fentanyl and carfentanil, and $40,565 in cash, the department said. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Other cases name a North Carolina man accused of running a trafficking group called STARLABS, five men arrested in New Jersey and New York over a mail-based network that sold counterfeit Xanax and other drugs, and two men arrested in Georgia and Florida accused of selling heroin and fentanyl in bulk. All of the charges are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

What officials said

Attorney General Todd Blanche said nothing would stop the administration from identifying and dismantling drug trafficking networks, and credited the Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement team, known as JCODE, and its state, federal and international partners.

FBI Director Kash Patel called TorNado the largest interagency takedown of dark web drug vendors and buyers to date. DEA Administrator Terrance Cole said traffickers are using the dark web to move fentanyl and other deadly drugs into American communities.

TorNado is the sixth internationally coordinated action since JCODE was created in 2018, and the department said it builds on last year's Operation RapTor. Arrests outside the United States included 59 in the United Kingdom, 45 in Hungary, 41 in Germany and 23 in France. The Justice Department said a number of investigations are still open to identify the people behind other dark web accounts.