The suspected leader of the ransomware gang, Ragnar Locker, was arrested this week in an international police operation in Paris. Several of the group’s servers were also seized. In addition to national police units from ten countries, the East Netherlands police also participated in the investigation.

The group has been active since December 2019 and is suspected of attacking companies and organizations around the world using ransomware bearing its name. The group hacked into the systems of companies and organizations and installed malware in order to extort money from its victims, said the European investigative organizations Europol and Eurojust, which coordinated the police action.

After installing the malware, the gang demanded a ransom in exchange for unlocking the systems. This amount may reach tens of millions of euros. In addition, the group threatened to leak the stolen data on the so-called dark web if their demands were not met.

Since 2020, 168 companies and organizations have fallen victim to Ragnar Locker, according to Eurojust. It is not clear how much ransom the affected organizations paid to the criminals in total.

During the operation carried out by Interpol this week, the main suspect was arrested in Paris. In addition, his home in the Czech Republic was searched and five other suspects were interrogated in Spain and Latvia. The group’s website on the dark web in Sweden has been removed.

A total of nine servers were taken over. Five of them were in the Netherlands. Servers are also found in Germany and Sweden.

According to the coordinator of the anti-cybercrime team of the East Netherlands Police, Peter Bos, his team has made an important contribution to the international operation. The team was able to map the IT infrastructure and operating methods of the ransomware gang and took over several servers in the Netherlands, according to reports. RT in the East.

“We also obtained data from more than 60 multinational companies, and during the investigation some victims informed us of impending attacks by this group,” Boss said.