“They blocked a total of 2,600 malicious fake medicine websites in a nationwide Pangea XIV operation — an international collective action against the sale of illegal drugs and medical products,” she said in an email to theedgemarkets.com. In this respect, the use of encrypted communication apps like Telegram and Signal have reduced the barriers to access for drug buyers to purchase products online, whilst also reducing fees that vendors pay to darknet markets for sales. Over the last year, the online illicit drug trade has continued to decentralize away from darknet markets and towards encrypted chat and social media platforms.
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Just as with any other drug addiction, overcoming fentanyl addiction will require detoxification and rehabilitation. Unlike heroin, synthetic fentanyl is cheaper and easier to produce. It has fuelled a drug-related epidemic, causing the deaths of almost one million Americans in just the past 20 years or so. The US has been a major witness to how the illicit distribution of fentanyl—which sees it typically sold as powders and counterfeit pills—can get out of hand. As the brain adapts to fentanyl, users require higher doses to feel the same effect.
Quarterly Market Insights & Forecasting
Such signatures are intended to confirm that vendors still have access to their accounts and have not been arrested or compromised. A moderator and six prominent vendors were arrested simultaneously in other countries, and officers seized assets worth about $9 million. The dark web is a collection of sites that are not indexed by search engines and can only be viewed with specialized web browsers designed to provide privacy and anonymity.
Dark Web, Not Dark Alley: Why Drug Sellers See The Internet As A Lucrative Safe Haven
- Boutique dark markets are implementing stricter security measures, including better encryption and multi-layered protections, to safeguard transactions.
- Ultimately, the fight against crypto crime requires a proactive, collaborative approach.
- Silk Road 2.0 was launched soon after the original Silk Road was seized and since that time there has been a proliferation of darknet markets..
- These markets host hundreds, or in some cases thousands, of people who sell drugs, commonly referred to as “vendors”.
And the fragmentation of illicit markets, particularly in drug sales, signals a shift toward decentralization — with criminal enterprises moving away from traditional darknet marketplaces toward more agile and resilient platforms. This dramatic increase may reflect the decentralization of the drug trade away from traditional darknet markets, as vendors grow more adept at operating across multiple platforms on both the clearnet and darknet — including e-commerce websites and social media platforms. The dismantling of Archetyp Market, one of the longest-running and largest dark web drug marketplaces, highlights international law enforcement’s coordinated efforts to combat the global illegal drug trade and address the distribution of dangerous substances such as fentanyl. A number of studies suggest that markets such as Silk Road may have helped users reduce the harm caused by illicit drug use, particularly compared with street-based drug marketplaces.
Ahmad Zahid added that Malaysia’s Home Ministry will utilise a crime data network analysis system to better track drug-related crime patterns and help develop more focused and effective strategies to tackle the issue. Similarly, Basra (2019) reported that two-thirds of jihadists in their dataset consumed drugs before and during their radicalisation. AADK director-general Ruslin Jusoh pleaded with synthetic drug users to seek help from the agency or other organisations offering rehabilitation programmes. He said police findings show there are numerous local criminal syndicates involved in the production of synthetic drugs, mainly in urban areas, so as to conceal their clandestine operations. According to Malaysia’s National Anti-Drug Agency (AADK), over 70 per cent of the almost 170,000 drug addicts accounted for in the country as at September were synthetic drug users.
A darknet market is a commercial website on the dark web that operates via darknets such as Tor and I2P. In recent years, the online sale of kratom (Mitragyna speciosa), a Southeast Asian plant with both medicinal and psychoactive properties, has raised health concerns mainly due to the uncontrolled diffusion of adulterated kratom-related products. The evolving landscape of crypto crime in 2024 highlights a complex interplay between advancing security measures and increasingly adaptive illicit actors.
There have also been mentions of expanding the list of banned drug-related chemicals in Malaysia; at 110 items, the list is a fraction of that of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which holds over 1000 drugs. According to authorities, it gives faster, more accurate results when it comes to tracing different types of drugs. One thing rarely mentioned in the marketing of drug abuse is all the risk that comes with taking it recreationally. That dependency, coupled with its availability on the black market, makes fentanyl one of the most dangerous substances in circulation today. Over time, this leads to complete emotional blunting, where users become unable to feel pleasure without the drug. Fentanyl, often called the “zombie drug” and 100 times stronger than morphine, has been detected in Malaysia, including the Klang Valley and Johor, through sewage analysis.
Trump Pardons Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht
Inspections at the house led to the discovery of 830 packages and 56 sacks of suspected syabu alongside equipment used to repackage the drugs, he added. “They were caught while packing drugs,” he said, adding that the drugs were packaged as Chinese tea. The drugs confiscated last Thursday and Friday included ecstasy and ketamine, and were worth at least RM82mil.
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Others are looking for stolen data, hacking services, or even banned books and political content. Some were taken down by law enforcement, others just vanished overnight with users’ money. It was the first big site where people could anonymously buy drugs using Bitcoin, and it gained a lot of attention, until it was shut down by the FBI in 2013. By supplying stolen data, these dark web links fuel many online scams and identity theft operations, playing a critical role in the darker aspects of the internet.
In Grand Theft Auto Online, players who purchase warehouses and garages for illicit cargo and stolen cars can buy/steal and sell them through trade on the “SecuroServ” syndicate website. A study based on a combination of listing scrapes and feedback to estimate sales volume by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University captured some of the best data. These variations can be attributed to factors like geographic isolation, strict border controls, lenient laws on illegal items, high prices, tight internet control, and the general accessibility of illegal goods. Researchers contended that previous studies have demonstrated variations in the types of substances available in different countries.
Ahmad Zahid was also reported as saying that Kelantan has the highest drug abuse rate in Malaysia, with 1,130 users per 100,000 population, followed by Terengganu (974), Perlis (965), and Kedah (898). The latest statistics show a 32.5 percent increase in reported drug users and addicts from 2023 to 2024. Statistics published on the agency’s website indicated 145,526 reported drug users and addicts in 2023.
Trade is booming despite disruptions from law enforcement and particularly “exit scams”, in which market admins abruptly close down sites and take all available funds. Silk Road 2.0 was launched soon after the original Silk Road was seized and since that time there has been a proliferation of darknet markets.. The key difference is the anonymity afforded by accessing darknet markets. Major drug markets in the Dark Web are now worth around $315 million annually according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The JoyInc marketplace was “one of the most prolific methamphetamine and cocaine distributors to ever operate on the darknet,” the Justice Department said in its statement.
Darknet Markets Explained
Goods sold by the same sellers also included illicit drugs and fraud-related products. A total of 231 listings of kratom across 23 darknet marketplaces were identified between March 2020 and October 2021. Amongst the most notable was the first merger and acquisition between two marketplaces on the darknet — whereby the struggling SuperMarket was absorbed by the now-Superlisted DrugHub in an operation that lasted around one month. Onymous (the law enforcement takedown of the Silk Road 2.0 darknet marketplace together with a host of smaller DNMs in 2014) and Op. 2024 saw 42% fewer new darknet marketplaces (DNMs) launched year over year, with the proportion of Monero-only DNMs launched increasing from little more than a third in 2023 to nearly half in 2024.
Hydra, which operated almost entirely in the Russian language and whose sellers were primarily based in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and surrounding countries, used many of the features of prior marketplaces, such as a user-friendly interface, clean images of the advertised products, seller review systems, and simple, escrow-based purchases. While it included some innocuous listings such as health supplements, the majority of vendors and most of the sales were related to illicit drugs. The quality of products is attributed to the competition and transparency of darknet markets which involve user feedback and reputation features. Later markets such as Evolution ban “child pornography, services related to murder/assassination/terrorism, prostitution, Ponzi schemes, and lotteries”, but allow the wholesaling of credit card data.
While some of these markets were shuttered by law enforcement agencies – some took the easy way out with exit scams. Some markets are invite-only or have strict registration rules to keep out scammers and law enforcement. Believe it or not, some dark web marketplaces have pretty advanced systems for building trust. But once you start doing illegal things, like buying drugs or stolen credit cards, that’s when you’re breaking the law. Some are looking for illegal stuff they can’t buy elsewhere, like drugs or counterfeit documents. The story of dark web marketplaces kicks off with Silk Road, launched in 2011.
Size Of Listings
Ultimately, the fight against crypto crime requires a proactive, collaborative approach. Ransomware actors and fraudsters are leveraging technological advancements, including cross-chain bridges and artificial intelligence, to bypass detection and scale their operations. A key theme throughout the year has been the resilience and adaptability of illicit networks.
The first darknet market of notoriety was Silk Road. Access to such markets can be achieved in a number of ways. A screenshot of the marketplace shared by the DOJ in the statement showed cocaine available for bulk purchase from JoyInc on Drughub, a dark web site. Agents also allegedly found large quantities of cash and suspected drugs while serving several search warrants, but the Justice Department declined to provide further details about those activities and seizures, saying the information was under seal. Additionally, where non-compliant cash out points are facilitating the movement of illicit funds from DNMs, regulators and law enforcement may take action to disrupt activity at the cash out point itself.
Many of these big markets are now engaged in cyber warfare, with vendors and operators attacking each other to assert dominance, often leading to disruptions and shutdowns. Historically, the darknet drug trade has been dominated by large, multi-purpose platforms like AlphaBay and DrugHub. These insights help us understand why the dark web is increasingly attractive, not only to consumers of illicit drugs but to the people who supply them. It also takes drugs off the street, reducing some violent crime. This protects vendors from many risks that are prevalent in other forms of drug supply, including undercover police, predatory standover tactics where suppliers may be robbed, assaulted or even killed by competitors, and customers who may inform on their supplier if caught. You can make so much more money online, the risks in selling outside cryptomarkets aren’t even remotely worth it.
