The “dark net”, bitcoins and the increasing sophistication of online drug sales

The “dark net”, bitcoins and the increasing sophistication of online drug sales

The online marketplace for illicit drugs is becoming larger and more brazen, now capitalizing on technological advancements in private web transactions and virtual online currency to protect the identities of suppliers, consumers and website administrators. Buyers and sellers are connecting online via so-called “dark net” sites (The term “dark net” refers to a distribution network of users, obscured by encryption technology, and anonymized by hidden IP addresses.

“Dark nets” are niches within the “deep web”, which includes network connected sites that are not searchable by major search engines) and most often, traffic drugs directly through the postal service. UNODC global seizure data indicate that over the past decade, there was a 300 per cent increase in cannabis seizures obtained through the postal service between 2000 and 2011, the majority of which are coming from seizures reported from countries in Europe and the Americas.

The “dark net” cannot be accessed through traditional web searches; it requires logging in through a web proxy, such as to a Tor network (“TOR” is the acronym for “The Onion Router” and works by encrypting communications to relay Internet traffic through multiple proxies worldwide to mask users’ locations and hide servers), which connects to another location in the network, ensuring that the Internet Protocol (IP) address is not visible on either side of the transaction. These websites do not function as stores per se but work in a manner similar to eBay (An online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a wide variety of goods and services worldwide), where users and buyers can connect and are provided a venue to manage transactions and track fraudulent sales. Transactions are mostly conducted using the online peer-to-peer currency “bitcoin”, which remains in escrow, until it is transferred to the seller once the product is satisfactorily delivered. Now 1 bitcoin has worth $356.02 .Several websites such as “Black Market Reloaded”, “The Armory” and “The General Store”, like the now defunct “Silk Road” website, sell a wide variety of products using this method. Despite the efforts to keep the site administrators, users and sellers unknown, 2013 saw the successful dismantling of several of these large-scale online drug trafficking operations, most notorious among them being the “Silk Road”, which was seized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States, along with $28 million in bitcoins belonging to the administrator. While “Silk Road” sold approximately 24,400 drug products, websites such as “The Armory” have taken over broader elements of weapons and ammunitions trafficking after they were no longer available on the “Silk Road”. In a research paper on the user experience of the “Silk Road”, an interviewee, after detailing his favourite purchases (good-quality cannabis, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), and 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenethylamine (2C-I)) stated that the “Silk Road” provided users with access to substances they otherwise would not have tried.

While there are no reliable statistics on how many people are buying drugs on the Internet, the variety available and purchased on the “dark net” appears to be diverse and growing. Because purchases and sales through the “dark net” pose unique challenges for law enforcement and presents a niche market for high-quality drugs and new psychoactive substances, if the past trend continues, it has the potential to become a popular mode of trafficking in controlled substances in years to come.