The increase has been primarily due to the emergence of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids in the illicit drug market (Pardo et al., 2019). These findings, and our methodological remarks on applying text mining, can enhance future research to further examine risk and harm reduction efforts across darknet markets. This study was designed to explore the risk reduction efforts of the community of a selected darknet market and therefore contribute to the harm assessment of darknet markets. Based on the results, the developed trust metric can be further extended and queried among actual darknet market users. Drugs on the darknet have a better reputation regarding cleanliness (Bancroft, 2017; Munksgaard et al., 2022), and some form of harm reduction also derives from the communities formed around darknet markets (Aldridge et al., 2018; Szigeti et al., 2023). Furthermore, deterring drug users from the darknet could lead to them buying drugs on the streets, which could be more dangerous from a health perspective.
- Navia further admitted to supplying methamphetamine to Ta and Srinivasan’s drug trafficking operation.
- OFAC sanctioned Parsarad in March 2025, describing him as the marketplace’s sole administrator and noting he had communicated with vendors about relaunching a successor platform.
- Most users of the cryptomarkets are not novices and already have established experience in face-to-face markets.
- Ultimately, reforming the protocols of delivery service providers and implementing targeted risk awareness campaigns could reduce both the supply and demand on darknet markets by influencing customers’ and vendors’ delivery-related risk perception.
- The shutdown was described by news site DeepDotWeb as “the best advertising the dark net markets could have hoped for” following the proliferation of competing sites this caused, and The Guardian predicted others would take over the market that Silk Road previously dominated.
- The exploratory analysis of textual data scraped from the darknet market allowed us to examine the characteristics of the online illicit drug trade directly.
This week, there were two deaths related to fentanyl in a town. These sex offenders are called “chomos” in federal prison and “pedos” on the darknet and elsewhere. It’s like that situation, but on the darknet, where the other could potentially be an undercover agent. So, the dark web vendor needs to protect those keys very well, and thus he is required to store them both on a little USB flash drive. Having possession of the two private keys, PGP Key and Bitcoin Key would easily prove to the feds that the arrested (if arrested) is the vendor on the site.
Online And Offline Determinants Of Drug Trafficking Across Countries Via Cryptomarkets
At the height of lockdown, mail-sorting offices were over-run, short-staffed and swamped with millions of extra parcels as online sales boomed. In most of the UK, 1kg prices for the drug have risen to around £2,000 a kilo, up from an average of £1,500 in January 2019. Although EU borders did not close to trade, shipping was hit, with capacity worldwide falling by 20 percent during lockdown, to lower than at any time in the last decade.
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Operation RapTor involves law enforcement actions taken by JCODE member agencies, including the DEA, FBI, FDA OCI, HSI, IRS-CI, and USPIS. McDonald purchased bulk quantities of fentanyl and cocaine and then directed others to complete hundreds of drug sales involving large quantities of both fentanyl and cocaine. Both defendants further admitted to distributing fentanyl-laced pills to two additional victims, both of whom suffered fatal drug overdoses shortly after they received the pills from Ta and Srinivasan. Srinivasan received virtual currency as payment for the drugs and then routed that virtual currency through cryptocurrency exchanges.
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By mixing their transactions with others, vendors add an extra layer of anonymity to their financial activities. The use of blockchain technology makes it difficult to trace the flow of funds, ensuring the privacy and anonymity of vendors. Darknet vendors often rely on cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, for financial transactions.
Vendor Collaboration
- Unlike traditional markets that are limited by geographical boundaries, the dark web allows vendors to reach customers from all around the world.
- The above-mentioned potential pitfalls of community-based harm reduction support the need for developing web outreach on darknet platforms implemented by professional harm reduction organisations (Davitadze et al., 2020).
- The Tor network is a widely used method for darknet vendors to hide their digital footprints.
- In furtherance of Operation RapTOR and in their first action as a JCODE member agency, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) additionally sanctioned Behrouz Parsarad, an Iranian national, for his role as the founder and operator of Nemesis Market following seizure of the market.
To facilitate the application, we have created seven categories and classified the trust factors into these categories (see Table 1). Findings contribute to strategically planning demand reduction projects and interventions based on a deeper understanding of customers’ risk perception. The assessment of this trust metric enables ranking the trust factors and their comparison by relevant independent variables. Its findings also point to the need for further research on delivery providers and predict that influencing the delivery-related risk perception of potential customers could effectively reduce demand. The measurement tool developed in this research will facilitate further criminological research on vendor reputation.
“This historic international seizure of firearms, deadly drugs, and illegal funds will save lives,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi. Operation RapTor builds on the successes of prior years’ operations and takedowns of marketplaces, which resulted in the seizure of darknet infrastructure from Nemesis, Tor2Door, Bohemia, and Kingdom Markets, providing investigators across the world with investigative leads and evidence. But with blockchain intelligence advancing and global partnerships strengthening, law enforcement is better positioned than ever to detect, disrupt, and dismantle these operations. That extortion threat, combined with increased tracing and investigative pressure, led many users to flee the platform, dramatically reducing deposits and facilitating law enforcement’s final takedown. All transactions were conducted in cryptocurrency—primarily Bitcoin and Monero—allowing customers and vendors to move funds without using traditional financial rails. One of the most high-profile targets of Operation RapTor—the largest coordinated global crackdown on darknet drug trafficking to date—was Incognito Market, a dark web narcotics marketplace that operated with remarkable scale, anonymity, and apparent impunity.
International Law Enforcement Cooperation
“The illicit movement of opioids poses a significant threat to public health and safety – whether by known transnational criminal gang members across international borders or anonymously through darknet spaces,” said Senior Official Performing the Duties of Deputy Director P.J. Lechleitner of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). “Collaboration with our law enforcement partners is key to combatting fentanyl and opioid trafficking,” said Chief Jim Lee of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). “Operation SpecTor was a coordinated international law enforcement effort, spanning three continents, to disrupt drug trafficking on the dark web and represents the most funds seized and the highest number of arrests in any coordinated international action led by the Justice Department against drug traffickers on the dark web,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. This year’s law enforcement operation was accompanied by a public awareness campaign called Operation ProtecTor aimed to promote public safety and spread awareness of resources for those struggling with substance abuse and who go through extreme lengths to obtain opioids.
OFAC’s designation of Parsarad was the result of strong partnership and coordination with the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, FinCEN, and a range of European law enforcement partners. Parsarad enriched himself from fees he charged users of Nemesis with every transaction, pocketing what OFAC estimates to be millions of dollars over the course of the marketplace’s existence. Treasury remains focused on the risks posed by darknet marketplaces, as highlighted in previous designations of Genesis Market on April 5, 2023, and of Hydra Market on April 5, 2022. Some of the identified underground marketplaces hide the exact number of users revealing only the number of sellers and shops registered on them, that’s why in such cases we used other available sources and assumptions to estimate it. The drug trade, both real and digital, is not only recession-proof but liable to bloom in times of economic growth.
What Are The Scams Done By Some Vendors On The Darknet Markets
Items on a typical centralized darknet market are listed from a range of vendors in an eBay-like marketplace format. In July 2017, the markets experienced their largest disruptions since Operation Onymous, when Operation Bayonet culminated in coordinated multinational seizures of both the Hansa and leading AlphaBay markets, sparking worldwide law enforcement investigations. The months and years after Silk Road’s closure were marked by a greatly increased number of shorter-lived markets as well as semi-regular law enforcement takedowns, hacks, scams and voluntary closures.
Cryptomarkets are a focus for the gentrification hypothesis which proposes that a combination of long-established social, economic and technical conditions is serving to reduce the importance of violence and predation in drug distribution 17, 43. Many new entrants may just as quickly leave when they find the cryptomarkets do not suit their needs. On the other hand, research has found little difference between prices commanded on cryptomarkets compared to those on social media .
When Silk Road moved a chunk of the drug trade online, it had to help sellers and buyers solve a potentially serious coordination and trust problem. Drug vendors operated on the marketplace, paid fees for it, and competed with each other for customers. For example, the chart below shows transactions involving an online drugs vendor traced to the ROK, who receives customer funds from mainstream cryptocurrency exchanges. Korean law enforcement have shown that they have the motivation, resources, and skills to catch entire networks of these vendors. Over the past two years, dead drop dealing over Telegram has become a key method of distributing illicit drugs sold online in the ROK. Some health professionals such as “DoctorX” provide information, advice and drug-testing services on the darknet.
This feature may aid law enforcement in identifying counterfeit money and determining if it originated from the same source. The DNM vendors print addresses on thermal labels or thermal paper because they don’t have microprinting as it doesn’t use ink, so their IP addresses won’t be on the label. The vendors usually wake up in the morning to check their new orders while the other people engage in shipping. The vendors put stamps on the packages and place them in the mailbox. The vendors cannot simply give them to the mail carrier who comes to their house. Pairing the variables allows the vendors to combine them and establish probable cause.
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In the first block of questions, we asked the respondents about their internet habits, general attitudes (e.g., trust, zero tolerance for drug use), and knowledge about illegal drugs. Legal web markets often use the price comparison function to allow customers to compare prices with other online markets. To test out this measurement tool, we selected a population less likely to purchase illegal drugs offline but more willing to do it online, anonymously, and privately, while its purchase intention is still likely to be reversible. We developed a quantitative questionnaire with 21 items indicating trust, based on previous research on the role of trust in surface web and darknet (drug) trade. Its novelty lies primarily in the fact that customers and vendors trust each other without meeting in person before closing a deal (Botsman, 2017). Archetyp Market facilitated a reported minimum of 250 million euros (about $290 million) in drug transactions over five years, with over 600,000 users, 3,200 vendors, and 17,000 listings.
The DHS Cyber Crimes Center (C3) combats cybercrime, online child sexual exploitation, and criminal exploitation of the internet with state-of-the-art forensic technology. Credible reporting from the referenced agencies, in addition to contributions from ATF; Army CID; CBP; Department of Treasury’s FinCEN and Office of Foreign Assets Control; and NCIS enabled domestic law enforcement actions in support of Operation RapTOR. Operation RapTOR includes law enforcement actions taken by JCODE member agencies, to include ICE HSI; the DEA; FBI; FDA-OCI; IRS-CI; and USPIS; in addition to foreign partners listed below. This operation was about protecting innocent people from predatory criminals who profit from violence, addiction, and fear. No matter where criminals hide, we will find them, dismantle their operations, and bring them to justice.
TRM currently assesses that between 20 and 30 significant drug-focused DNMs are active at any given time—a number that has remained remarkably consistent over the past several years. Other entities that operate on the darknet but deal in malware or stolen credentials are categorized separately as cybercrime platforms—not as DNMs. The authors declare that the work reported herein did not require ethics approval because it did not involve direct human participation, only publicly available, anonymised data. FR collected the data, contributed to the analysis process, revised the drafted manuscript, and approved the final submission.TK conceptualized the study, contributed to the analysis process, revised the drafted manuscript, and approved the final submission. ÁSZ conceptualized the study, designed the analysis method, cleaned the data, implemented the analysis, drafted the manuscript, and approved the final submission. The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
