In brief
- Europol has taken down a cybercrime network that provided SIM cards to fraudsters in over 80 countries.
- Criminal activity facilitated by the network resulted in losses above $5 million in Austria, while authorities seized $330,000 in crypto from alleged network members.
- Europol’s action comes as crypto increasingly features in international crime, and as law enforcement agencies step up their policing of cybercrime.
Europol has seized $330,000 in crypto and arrested seven individuals as part of the takedown of a cybercrime-as-a-service network operating out of Latvia.
Codenamed SIMCARTEL, the Europol- and Eurojust-led operation seized 1,200 SIM box devices and 40,000 SIM cards, which the network provided to fraudsters in…







