Police took down 30 websites where illegal medicines and drugs were allegedly sold. Three suspects were arrested this week in the Netherlands, including alleged masterminds behind sites linked to deaths. Authorities also linked the online drug trade to the former webshop Slaappillen.net, which had been shut down last year. Police suspect the group kept selling calming, sleeping and painkiller drugs through new variants after the site went offline. Investigators say the fake pills included nitazenes, a dangerous synthetic substance that greatly increases the risk of overdose. A woman from Voorburg died after ordering oxycodon through Slaappillen.net. This new operation focused on further websites allegedly used to continue the business. Police say customers sometimes received direct invitations to the replacement sites whenever authorities took earlier webshops down. The suspects, police claim, played an essential role in setting up and managing the new webshops. In addition to shutting down the sites, police seized the servers running them to make it harder to restart quickly. “We have brought down the whole technology behind the websites,” said Ron van Brussel of the Landelijke Eenheid Opsporing en Interventies, responsible for the heavy organised crime approach. The arrested suspects are a 35-year-old man from Kwintsheul, a 39-year-old man from Rotterdam and a 66-year-old man from The Hague. They are suspected of offering, selling and delivering illegal medicines that allegedly led to three deaths. Police say the medicines were meant for the Dutch market, but sometimes also for customers in Germany and France. They targeted vulnerable users searching online for sleep or calming medicines they could not get through the regular route, where they would not know what they were really buying. Officers also carried out searches and seized crypto wallets. The investigation also refers to storage locations where illegal medicines were found. Next week, two men are due to appear in court for their alleged role in the organisation behind Slaappillen.net, described as an advance in the search for the main people behind the operation. Investigators say the trade is not over, as other criminal groups are believed to run similar websites. More arrests are not excluded.