Frankfurt, May 23, (dpa/GNA) – An international police operation has shut down 300 online servers as part of a major crackdown on cybercrime, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) said on Friday.

The BKA said 50 of the servers were located in Germany. An additional 650 domains worldwide were rendered harmless, it added.

As part of the operation, called Endgame 2.0, law enforcement authorities seized cryptocurrency with a total value of around €3.5 million ($3.97 million) and identified 37 suspects, issuing international arrest warrants for 20 individuals, according to the BKA.

The majority of the suspects are Russian nationals, including alleged members of the “Trickbot” and “Qakbot” groups, the office said.

The operation was conducted by the Frankfurt public prosecutor’s office, the Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) and the BKA, along with the European Union’s law enforcement and criminal justice bodies – Europol and Eurojust – and law enforcement authorities in the Netherlands, France, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.

It followed extensive investigations in the countries involved, the BKA said. In Germany, these were conducted based on suspicions of gang-related and commercial extortion, as well as membership of a criminal organization abroad.

GNA

PDC