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Criminal sophistication and technical ingenuity
The now-dismantled criminal network undertook great efforts to provide its criminal clients with the requested service. This included the professional design and appearance of its website, which was taken offline by law enforcement during the action day. There was also the massive organisational effort of multiple accomplices acquiring thousands of SIM cards in almost 80 countries worldwide to be rented to other criminal organisations. As a side note: one of the main suspects behind this now-dismantled criminal structure had already been under investigation in Estonia for arson and extortion.
Joint investigative effort
To prepare for the action day in Latvia, Eurojust and Europol leveraged their strengths to enhance the international law enforcement effort. They assisted in planning and administering the action day, with support from Joint Investigation Team partners Austria, Estonia and Latvia, as well as Finland. Europol deployed specialists to Riga to aid Latvian authorities, and both agencies provided financial support for technical equipment, travel and translation costs.
During the operation, the technical infrastructure of the organised criminal network was dismantled in collaboration between Europol and the Shadowserver Foundation. A splash page was displayed on the landing page of the criminal service, which had been offering crime-as-a-service using foreign phone numbers for smishing and phishing. Europol provided analytical support, OSINT analysis for mapping the online criminal service and organised weekly meetings between law enforcement authorities, prosecutors and Eurojust desks. Europol also offered on-the-spot forensic support to secure digital evidence, took down the digital infrastructure and provided large file exchange services for transmitting data evidence.
Participating countries: 
• Austria: Federal Criminal Intelligence Service (Bundeskriminalamt), Criminal Investigation Department Salzburg (Landeskriminalamt Salzburg); Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office (Staatsanwaltschaft Wien)
• Estonia: Estonian Police (Politsei); Northern District Prosecutor’s Office (Põhja ringkonnaprokuratuur)
• Finland: Finnish Police (Poliisi); National Cyber-enabled Crimes Unit (NCCU Finland); National Bureau of Investigation (Keskusrikospoliisi)
• Latvia: Latvian State Police (Valsts policija); Rīga Judicial Region Prosecution Office (Rīgas tiesas apgabala prokuratūra); Rīga Northern Prosecution Office (Rīgas Ziemeļu prokuratūra)