RIGA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Latvian law enforcement authorities participated in an international police operation codenamed SIMcartel, which dismantled an illegal IT infrastructure and led to the detention of five individuals who had been providing anonymous online account services under the guise of a legitimate business, the State Police reported on Friday.

According to police information, the illegal platform enabled anonymous communication and payments, offering more than 80 mobile phone numbers from various countries. Investigators estimate that the infrastructure supported the creation of around 50 million online accounts, affecting at least 3,200 people worldwide and causing total losses of nearly 5 million euros (5.85 million U.S. dollars).

Ongoing investigations are being conducted in Latvia, Estonia, and Austria. Among those detained in Latvia was an individual previously declared internationally wanted by Estonian authorities on suspicion of other serious crimes.

The cybercrime unit of the Latvian police carried out the operation on Oct. 10, dismantling the SIMbox infrastructure deployed in Latvia.

As part of the action, officers conducted 14 searches at various locations, seizing 1,200 SIMbox devices operating with 40,000 SIM cards from different countries, along with five servers. Authorities fully took over the company's IT infrastructure, including its two websites, gogetsms.com and apisim.com. (1 euro = 1.17 U.S. dollar) ■