>This 14-country operation demonstrates the extraordinary cooperation with our international partners

The way they are treating their "international partners" would make this kind of cooperation very dificult on the future, and given that any dismantled site will give origin to new ones to fill the void, seems to me that it does more harm than good. A known evil is easier to dodge than an unknown one.

I’ve always been curious what the ramifications are for security researchers who openly have accounts on such forums in order to track the dissemination of leaks.

You’re not buying anything. You’re just watching.