Europol Seizes First VPN Used by Ransomware Gangs, Arrests Administrator

French and Dutch authorities, supported by Europol and Eurojust, executed Operation Saffron to dismantle First VPN: they seized 33 servers, took multiple domains (including onion sites) offline, arrested an alleged administrator, and obtained a user database that links thousands of users to ransomware, fraud, and data-theft campaigns, generating investigative leads across 16 countries while demonstrating both the impact and limitations of infrastructure takedowns.