A Europol-backed law enforcement operation has led to the dismantling of over 373,000 dark web sites advertising child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and cybercrime as a service (CaaS).

The German-led Operation Alice ran from March 9-19 and initially targeted “Alice with Violence CP” – a fraudulent platform run by a Chinese national which swindled would-be CSAM and CaaS customers into paying for non-existent services.

Over the nearly five years of the investigation, the site and hundreds of thousands of others like it became a useful honeypot for police, enabling them – through international cooperation – to unmask the identities of 440 customers.

Additional investigations are ongoing into over 100 of these individuals, Europol said. However, whenever children were thought to be in danger, police swooped on suspects