The marketplace reportedly added 82,000 advertisements daily and facilitated 67,000 transactions every month. Barratt also emphasized that, as drug checking continues to be legalized, new service providers should prioritize asking people more specific questions about the source of their submitted samples. To wrap their heads around these contradictory results, the authors developed substance-specific explanations for how “the dynamics of the cryptomarket” might influence drug composition. For example, the ample in-person supply of MDMA in the Netherlands may drive the differences observed between cryptomarket and offline sources. Similarly, some cryptomarket drugs—MDMA powder and cocaine—were far less likely to contain adulterants. But others—amphetamine and LSD—were found to be more likely to be adulterated than samples acquired in-person.
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Cory explained that Bitcoin’s anonymous nature is both its greatest virtue and worst flaw. If you accidentally send it to the wrong address, you’ll never get it back. The anecdotally reported lower presence of unwanted fentanyl in dark-web drugs is an attraction for many in an era when opioid markets have been flooded with it.
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In early October, the Dutch police announced the success of a new joint law enforcement operation that led to the shutdown of the dual dark web marketplace Bohemia/Cannabia. These are two of the largest and longest-running dark web platforms for the trade of illegal goods, drugs, and cybercrime services. The ubiquity of the internet has transformed black markets, with shadowy street transactions now taking place in sophisticated digital marketplaces. According to Europol’s 2025 Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment report, nearly all forms of serious and organized crime now have a digital footprint. Criminals are leveraging the online domain to increase efficiency and maintain anonymity, and darknet markets are generating US$5–7.5 million in daily revenue. According to the court records and statements presented during court proceedings, Banmeet established vendor marketing platforms on various dark web marketplaces like Silk Road, Alpha Bay, Hansa, and similar platforms.
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“This makes it very difficult to track monies or indeed to identify vendors, although much success has already been achieved against hosts of Darknet market places and vendors alike,” commented the detective sergeant. Det Gda Murphy said gardaí subsequently searched the student’s then address and found further drugs, including ketamine worth €1,000 and a small amount of cannabis. He also pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis and ketamine for sale or supply at the same address on the same date. Street dealers, and those who buy from them, can be more easily identified and tracked than in the ever-changing online marketplace. At the end of April 2020, prescriptions drugs with a street value of £100,000 were seized.
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As reported by PTI, Singh was arrested in London in April at the request of the US. However, a judge was told that Devenney, who faced two charges linked to the operation, died on Tuesday night. Beyond drugs, there are now ever-growing examples of generative AI being used for sexual deepfakes across schools and even of public figures, including the recent case of NRL presenter Tiffany Salmond. In fact, it is routine for individuals participating in these dark web communities, par for the course of engaging in the markets. Usually these products are sent to the buyer by post and money transferred to the seller through the escrow system.
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Silk Road was a website synonymous with the so-called Dark Web before the FBI shut it down in 2013. It amassed hundreds of thousands of users in its short two and a half year lifetime. He told gardaí he had intended to smoke or bake the cannabis he ordered adding that he was a drug addict, having first taken drugs aged 11. The judge said it was clear from the evidence that the offending coincided with a particularly low point in his life and an overall deterioration of his well-being, which had led to heavy use of cannabis. In one case, the FBI contacted gardai in West Cork about a person accessing a dark web site related to the exploitation of children. In another case, a college student admitted importing more than €4,000 worth of cannabis from the United States after purchasing it online using The Dark Web.
Det Supt Shields says around 80% of organised crime in Northern Ireland relates to drugs and that criminals were increasingly using the internet to make money. Det Supt Rachel Shields said officers had also adapted their tactics to combat the online sale of illegal drugs. More criminals in Northern Ireland are using social media and the dark web to sell drugs, according to a senior police officer. True security comes from a combination of the right software tools, increasing your knowledge of cyberthreats, and establishing safe online practices.
The shutdown of Archetyp, a major dark web drug market, demonstrates that law enforcement takedowns have only short-term effects, as such markets quickly re-emerge and adapt. Persistent trade and resilient user communities limit the long-term impact of these interventions. Focusing solely on dark web markets may overlook broader digital harms occurring on mainstream platforms. This consistent upward trend across regions highlights the expansion and entrenchment of illicit drug markets globally, and is likely to be due in part to developments in online distribution. Notably, the 2023 Index also reveals a ‘strong and statistically significant’ correlation between the synthetic drugs trade and cyber-dependent crimes.
A search of the van revealed a sophisticated remote controlled hydraulic hide which, when accessed, contained nearly one-and-a-half kilos of heroin and cocaine. Established in 2022, Torzon market is one of the biggest and most diverse marketplaces on the dark web. It is considered very secure thanks to strict user validations and transparent payment and vendor review procedures. Russian Market has consistently remained one of the most popular and valuable data stores on the dark web.
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Social media companies are under growing pressure to eradicate drug dealing on their platforms, says Ashly Fuller, a PhD candidate at University College London researching the sale and advertisement of illegal drugs to young people on social media. Data released by social media companies shows that millions of pieces of drug-related content are already taken down every year. (Facebook and Instagram took action against 9.3 million pieces of drug-related content last year, while Snapchat says it did so in 241,227 cases in the second half of 2023.) But these companies’ actions are sometimes indiscriminate. The accounts of organizations promoting drug harm reduction and social media personalities who post content about drugs and psychedelics, but who do not sell them, are being caught in the crossfire of efforts to get a grip on the issue. The shift to digital markets has also reshaped the way illicit substances are bought, sold and distributed. Online platforms, for example, encourage bulk purchasing, setting them apart from offline markets, where such transactions are difficult to coordinate and easier to detect.
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Barratt envisions a future where harm reduction strategies are tailored to the source of the drug. If a drug checking service knows where a substance came from, they can decide whether it’s more appropriate to share any alarming results locally or online. In Barratt’s eyes, these far-from-straightforward results underscore the importance of expanding drug checking services. When you can’t necessarily count on cryptomarkets offering a safer supply, local drug checking becomes even more essential. However, as we’ve seen in the past with big takedowns like AlphaBay, the lure of buying drugs and other illegal items on the internet means there will always be a market. The operation, known as DisrupTor, was a joint effort between the Department of Justice and Europol.
- It had more than 600,000 users worldwide and 17,000 listings consisting mainly of illicit drugs including MDMA, cocaine and methamphetamine.
- And despite being in psychiatric treatment, Marie didn’t feel as if she were improving.
- So you go and ask someone else in the room to go get you a slice of cake, then they wander off and ask someone else to get the cake for them and so on until we’ve repeated that process thousands of time.
- Brian, a writer, harm reduction supporter and avid drug consumer in his 60s, hasn’t ever bought directly from the dark web.
- Among the various illicit digital markets, the drug trade is one of the most prominent.
ProPublica is one of the safer Tor sites to visit, because it doesn’t link to illegal content or activities. Instead, it focuses on publishing stories and holding powerful institutions accountable. Other major news sources blocked in some countries, like the BBC, also have dark web versions. Meanwhile, Singh either personally shipped the drugs from Europe to the United States or arranged for their shipment through US mail or other shipping services.
By paying close attention to where adulterated substances were purchased, local drug checking services can help participants make more informed decisions to protect their health. Whilst a great many products are sold, drugs dominate the numbers of listings, with the drugs including cannabis, MDMA, modafinil,108109110 LSD, cocaine, and designer drugs. Judge Martin Nolan imposed a six and a half year term on Mannion who he called “the brains of the operation”.
