The arrests were made in the states of Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio, as well as in Washington, the nation's capital, according to a joint statement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice.
FBI agents proceeded to arrest these individuals after carrying out several raids in different cities in the United States, such as New York, with search warrants for homes in several neighborhoods as well as the Long Island area, although no arrest was made.
Authorities today issued more than 35 search warrants across the country as part of an investigation to shed light on the series of coordinated cyberattacks that Anonymous perpetrated against PayPal and other large companies, such as Mastercard and Visa, among others.
The Justice Department also reported that since the investigation began, more than 75 search warrants have been issued across the country.
In addition, it was also detailed that, within the framework of the same operation, the United Kingdom Police arrested one person today in their territory and the Dutch security forces proceeded to the arrest of four more people.
The detainees in the United States are between 20 and 42 years old, and are accused of several crimes for "conspiring and intentionally damaging" the computer systems of PayPal from December 6 to 10, according to the indictment issued today by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California, in San Jose.
They are Christopher Wayne Cooper, 23 years old and known as "Anthrophobic"; Joshua John Covelli, 26, who used the nicknames "Absolem" and "Toxic"; Keith Wilson Downey, also 26; Mercedes Renee Haefer, 20, known as "No" and "MMMM," and Donald Husband, 29, who called himself "Ananon."
Rounding out the list are Vincent Charles Kershaw, 27, who starred as "Trivette," "Triv" and "Reaper"; Ethan Miles, 33; James Murphy, 36; Daniel Sullivan and Christopher Quang, both 22; Tracy Ann Valenzuela, 42, and Drew Alan Phillips, 26, who used the virtual name "Drew010," as well as Jeffrey Puglisi, 28, known as "Jeffer," "Jefferp" and "Ji."
Authorities kept the identity of one of the detainees secret, while all of them are expected to appear in court on Tuesday in the judicial districts in which they were arrested.
According to the indictment of the California federal prosecutor's office, the detainees are involved in the attacks that Anonymous devised against PayPal after that firm canceled the WikiLeaks account through which it received donations from around the world.
U.S. authorities also reported today the arrest of two more hackers: Scott Matthew Arciszewski, 21, who was arrested in Florida, and Lance Moore, also 21, who was captured by authorities in New Jersey.
Arciszewski is accused of attacking the website of the Tampa Bay firm InfraGard, which collaborates with the FBI, while Moore attacked the systems of the Telecommunications company AT&T to obtain documents and confidential information from it.
According to the statement from the FBI and the Department of Justice, the hackers apprehended today would face a maximum penalty of ten years in jail and a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted.
Source: Ambito
