The Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE) in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, has pulled off one of its most significant operations yet, arresting 9 accused involved in running an illegal cryptocurrency network with direct links to the dark web.
According to investigators, the network was not limited to financial fraud. It was allegedly being used to facilitate drug trafficking, money laundering and, critically, terror financing.
Gujarat’s Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi confirmed the arrests in a social media post, stating that the Gujarat Police had exposed and dismantled the illegal crypto network through advanced blockchain analysis and technical intelligence. He described the operation as a strong message against cybercrime and anti-national networks operating within Indian borders.
How the network operated
According to information shared by Sanghavi and corroborated by posts from the official Cyber Gujarat handle on X, the accused were using cryptocurrency infrastructure to run their operations largely under the radar.
The dark web was being used as the primary channel for facilitating illegal transactions, which investigators say included drug deals, layered money laundering routes, and suspected funding channels linked to terror activities.
The CCoE team reportedly deployed a combination of blockchain forensics, human intelligence, and cognitive AI systems to trace wallet addresses, transaction patterns, and the identities behind pseudonymous accounts. This is the same investigative framework that the CCoE has previously used in operations like Operation Mule Hunt, where 40 individuals were arrested in April 2026 for their involvement in a ₹622 crore cyber fraud network.
Police suspect the operation may have had international dimensions. The arrested individuals are currently being interrogated, and investigators are working to determine the full extent of who was cheated, how funds were routed across borders, and whether additional accused are still at large.
CCoE: Gujarat’s frontline against crypto crime
The Cyber Centre of Excellence, headquartered in Gandhinagar, has steadily emerged as one of Gujarat’s most critical agencies in the fight against digital fraud. The state government has staffed the centre with around 50 technical experts, and it has been responsible for busting major scams related to investment fraud, digital arrest rackets and mule account networks.
Earlier in 2025, the CCoE dismantled a cross-border cybercrime network with financial links traced directly to Pakistan, where over ₹10 crore had been transferred to a Pakistani Binance USDT account. In that operation too, it was Deputy CM Sanghavi who publicly disclosed the findings.
Why this bust matters
The timing of this operation is significant. On May 1, India’s Enforcement Directorate officially announced that cryptocurrency frauds, terror financing, cyber-enabled crimes and narcotics trafficking are now the agency’s key priority areas. ED Director Rahul Navin announced at the 70th ED Day Celebration, signalling a clear shift in India’s enforcement posture when it comes to digital assets being misused for serious criminal activity.
Gujarat itself has a long and complicated history with crypto-related crime. The BitConnect Ponzi scheme, orchestrated by Gujarat-native Satish Kumbhani, resulted in the ED seizing crypto worth ₹1,646 crore from linked devices in February 2025, the largest single-day crypto seizure by any Indian investigating agency.
In January 2026, two more individuals were arrested in connection with that case. Nationally, over 24 lakh cybercrime complaints were filed on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal in 2025 alone, with reported fraud losses totalling ₹22,495 crore, as per a report by the Times of India.
What separates this latest CCoE bust from routine cybercrime crackdowns is the alleged nexus between cryptocurrency, the dark web and terror financing. If the investigation confirms those links at an international level, this case could become one of the more consequential crypto crime busts in India’s recent enforcement history.
Also Read: India’s Parliament Panel to Meet ZebPay, Binance & WazirX on May 20 Over VDAs
