YNOT EUROPE – Conspiracy, money laundering and other charges have been filed against more than 50 people in three countries who are accused of operating “a highly organized criminal network” that used a variant of the Zeus trojan to siphon more than $70 million from bank accounts in Europe and the U.S.

Nineteen people in London were among the detainees; 11 of them face charges in Westminster Magistrates’ Court. New York authorities have charged 37 U.S. residents. The U.S. and UK suspects are thought to have been low-level “money mules” who assisted in transferring funds after infecting the computers of online banking customers.

Ukraine authorities arrested five people and charged them with masterminding the scheme. According to police, the Ukrainian suspects opened hundreds of bank accounts into which the mules deposited their takes after skimming a percentage for themselves. The group attempted to steal $220 million, but authorities discovered and disrupted the scheme before some accounts could be emptied.

Authorities in the Netherlands also cooperated in the international effort, which began in May 2009 under the name “Operation Trident Beach.” The FBI formed what it called “an unprecedented partnership” of local, state and federal task forces, working groups and police agencies after field agents in Omaha, Neb., discovered unusual activity involving automated clearinghouse batch payments to 46 separate banks in the U.S.

According to the FBI, the cyber-thieves targeted small- to medium-sized companies, municipalities, churches and individuals, infecting their computers using a version of the Zeus botnet, a popular malware toolkit. The botnet captured passwords, account numbers and other data used to log into online banking accounts.