Almost half of the drug trafficking on Darknet black markets are eliminated-but is still insignificant in the overall picture
Tablet, maybe illegal drugs. Image of Ernest Duffoo via Flickr.com. License: Creative Commons
The European Center for Drugs and Drug Abuse (EMCDDA), together with Europol. The report shows that the EU is the center of online drug trade-but that its share in all drug trafficking is rather irrelevant. Nevertheless, the authority senses the chance to suffocate the phenomenon in the bud before it becomes big.
The report published jointly by EMCDDA and Europol analyzes drug trafficking on the Darknet markets in the light of the latest findings from scientific studies and the work of international law enforcement officers. It illuminates an exciting phenomenon that otherwise takes place in the dark, and its meaning for Bitcoin the opinions differ very far apart.
A comfortable sales channel
The report sees the Darknetmarkets as a new, but already solid phenomenon in smuggling and trade in drugs. The DarkNetmarkets are hosted on anonymous servers, can only be anonymous with the Tor browser, and you can only pay on them with bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies, especially Monero. Various illegal goods are traded on them, but this is only about drugs.
The report reads like an advertisement for these markets. You have a number of advantages for buyers and sellers. These “include the selection of products, the simple availability, the convenience, as well as price and quality.”There is also a” relatively low risk of being tracked down, experiencing violence or being ‘deducted’.“In short:“ Darknetmarkets offer a comfortable sales channel for customers technically well -experienced customers.”
Similar to how the e-commercial has whirled the markets for legal goods, the markets in the Darknet could shake drug trafficking. In spite of all the advantages, this has not yet happened. “Compared to the entire sale in the EU drug market, sales on the Darknetmarkets are relatively low.”But such a trade happens to a significant extent” and has the potential to continue to grow.”
While the authorities have succeeded in collecting a lot of information and illuminating many aspects of the DarkNetmarkets, it remains unclear whether the organized crime has already started to use the markets for smuggling and the distribution of drugs.
Darknet drug trafficking in the EU
Large parts of the report are devoted to the activity of the enlarged EU (including Great Britain, Norway and Turkey). To assess this, the authors have the “snapshots” of the trade on 16 large marketplaces between the 22. November 2011 and the 16. February 2015 analyzed. The findings are interesting and should also be informative when it comes to the general consumer patterns of drugs in Europe.
First of all, the data show that the EU is a hotspot of drug crime in the Darkweb. At 46 percent, almost half of the sales of online drug trade by dealers from the EU happens. Interestingly, however, it only covers 34 percent of the total weight. This can be explained by the fact that EU dealers sell a few cannabis-which is cheap ever-while more expensive chemical stimulants are checked.
The so-called “stimulants except cocaine” are the most popular among the European Darknet deals, which probably contains vigilage such as ecstasy or crystal meth. This is followed by cocaine and cannabis. Hallucinogens such as magical mushrooms or LSD, as well as opiates like heroin, play a small role.
The country with the highest volume reflects the general economic order of the EU: it is Germany, the largest economy in the continent, with a volume of 26.6 million euros in the observed time. It is more surprising that countries like France or Italy do not follow in Germany, but Great Britain, the Netherlands and then Belgium.
Still small, but a threat with potential
Even six years after the Silk Road began the age of the DarkNetmarkets in 2011, the digital black markets are a niche phenomenon in European drug trafficking.
“Research shows that the entire monthly income from trade in illegal drugs is between 10.7 and 18.7 million euros on the eight top markets,” said the report. “The proportion of drugs traded online remains small if you compare them with the amount that are traded by traditional smuggling and distribution networks.”
However, the report notes that the Darknetmarkets represent a threat of remarkable potential. As with a startup, it is possible that your story has only started. Two properties of the markets in particular are relevant for the report:
First, “offer an ideal environment for the distribution of all types of illegal goods, including drugs, weapons, fake products and documents.“The markets are“ a tailor -made polycriminal environment.”The selection of drugs” clearly exceeds what users are offered on the street “, which can be a threat to the health of EU citizens.
Second, there are indications that organized crimes began to use the markets. But these clues are vague and refer to the distribution of cannabis to the street dealers. According to the report, there is the possibility that the DarkNetmarkets will challenge the established drug entrepreneurs, since they enable individuals without criminal networks to sell drugs with relatively few intermediate dealers. However, this is still not noticeable.
Challenges for law enforcement
For the police, the possible rise of the Darknetmarkets is a noteworthy challenge. In order to track down crimes in this environment, the law enforcement officers have to work with various topics that are otherwise rather rare in drug crime: payments with cryptocurrencies, encrypted Internet traffic and an increasing number of illegal goods delivered.
Most online drug dealers only accept payments in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, but exchange them for euros. Thanks to the transparency of the blockchain and the advanced regulation of the stock exchanges, the police can now pursue the traces of the money relatively well. “The knowledge and experience of how to track, track and confiscate virtual currencies continues to increase among the law enforcement officers and is strengthened by various tools from the private sector,” said the report. However, he admits that this is “often limited to Bitcoin and does not cover other cryptocurrencies that begin to spread in these markets.“Currencies such as Monero or Zcash, which“ offer criminals a greater anonymity ”, are particularly problematic. Their spread could destroy what has been achieved so far.
Furthermore, many conventional methods with which the police chase drug dealers are useless when it comes to the Darknetmarkets. “The drug search is often difficult to prepare for dealing with the trade in the Darknet. This requires investigative techniques and experiences that are usually more likely to combat cybercrime in units.”
A key weakness of the online drug trade can be found where it touches the real world: when the drugs are sent by post. “The law enforcement officers observe developments in this area and work with actors in private economy, including large transport and logistics service providers to track down and follow drugs that are sent by post.“However, a problem is the generally increased advancement of package shipments, among which not only the postmen groans, but also the drug investigators, since it makes it impossible to do“ systematic and effective checks in order to identify more than isolated suspicious packages.”
More cooperation
Despite all this, the law enforcement officers in Europe are extremely successful in combating the Darknet markets. In addition to the almost daily arrests of online dealers, about which the “Branch Magazine” Deepdotweb.com reports in a regularity, they are also able to repeatedly be able to take the markets off the network themselves.
The most noteworthy should be the shutdown from Alphabay and Hansa in early August. The report names this case as a success story. Not only because it is eliminated “significant elements of the infrastructure of the criminal underground”, shakes criminal activities, arrested key figures and collected mass data.
The most important thing in this parade infestation was something else: namely that it was possible to take control of the Hansa Market. When the police confiscated the Alphabay servers, customers and dealers flocked to Hansa – which was long in the hands of the Dutch police. This waited a few weeks, collected even more data, and then switched off Hansa. In the scene, this spread horror and paranoia.
However, the Darknet markets are “a very resilient environment that can quickly absorb actions of law enforcement, such as the shutdown of the largest marketplaces.“When a market disappears, trade decreases for a short time. “But the dealers and their customers quickly migrate to alternatives or new markets.“In addition, the markets and their users continue to develop their techniques. For example, messages are increasingly encrypted, the general security and anonymization practices are sharpened, and the gravity of the criminal investigators seems to be possible to migrate to decentralized marketplaces such as OpenBazaar.
In order to combat online drug trafficking on the DarkNetmarkets, the report recommends forming “Darknet investigative teams”. In these, various authorities, both nationally and internationally, should cooperate and exchange knowledge and competence.
The Darknetmarkets are not yet playing the first, second or third violin in the orchestra of the European drug trade. However, the report asks the police not to repeat the same mistake that was made with the cybercrime – namely only to react when it is too late and the criminal phenomenon has already had a significant influence on the safety of citizens and companies. There is “a time window of the chance to react before the markets have trained and have become an important distribution mechanism of illegal drugs in the EU.“In other words: you should suffocate the phenomenon in the germ.