In a case that included probes in Fresno and Merced, the Justice Department announced the dismantling Thursday of an international “Dark Web” operation that dealt in hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal drugs and other contraband.
In a press conference in Washington with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Sacramento-based U.S. Attorney Phil Talbert, officials said they had taken down the Alpha Bay Dark web site, which they described as being 10 times larger than the Silk Road site eradicated four years ago.
"We are talking about multiple servers, different countries, hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto currency, in a darknet drug trade that spans the globe,” Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe said.
The case is rooted in an indictment unsealed Thursday that was issued June 1 by a federal grand jury.