Decentralization, Robotization and Digital Transformation in the online drug trade
Disclaimer
This article is intended solely for research purposes and is not intended to promote drug use. No drugs were obtained, and anyone reading this is strongly discouraged from going down the rabbit hole by buying or using drugs. My personal opinion that drugs should be regulated and taxed won’t resonate in this article.
The start of online drug trade
Tor, or the deep web as most people call it, is best known for its dubious forums, illegal content, leaked passwords, and underground markets where you could buy anything from drugs to guns, counterfeit software, botnets, replica watches, and so on.
The Silk Road was one of the first and most well-known of these markets.
Ross Ullbricht (Born in 1984) was arrested in 2013 and later charged with (among other things) a conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy to commit computer hacking, conspiracy to traffic narcotics over the Internet, and conspiracy to continue a criminal enterprise (the so-called kingpin charge).
Then the road ahead became bumpy
After Silk Road was taken down, it wasn’t long before new markets began to fill the void that Silkroad had left, despite the fact that its owner was sentenced to two life sentences plus 40 years.
These markets, also known as darknet markets, came and went. Some lacked ‘Opsec’ (operation-security), allowing authorities to identify the operators behind the markets. Many have also used a so-called exit scheme.
Most of these markets work in the same way; as a user, you will have a digital wallet in the store that you can top up with cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin and the privacy coin Monero. For sellers, the market would typically charge a substantial seller bond, sometimes as much as 600 USD.
When the market operators plan for an exit scheme, they wait until the users’ wallets are filled and the site would then be taken down. Its operators vanish into thin air, along with the users’ Crypto Currency, which is now likely worth millions of dollars.
In comes the robot
With users becoming more cautious and paranoid, a form of decentralization has also crept into the underground online drug market.
The term used is “Televending” and the sellers are known as “Televendors.” The entire buying and selling process are now carried out via the Telegram network. Telegram is a privacy-focused messenger app similar to WhatsApp prior to Facebook’s new terms and conditions.
The Deep web now has a site that is sort off the Yellow Pages for drug dealers (or televendors). The website provides extensive search options, allowing you to locate the offender selling the drug or any other illegal item you may be looking for.
Telegram bots operating in Telegram channels handle the entire sales process. These bots can be created without extensive coding knowledge. Purchasing the item(s) you desire is now only a few clicks away. One of the larger channels (drugs) has over 160 thousand members.
There is even a Televent “Group chat” support group with around 15,000 members where do you drugs, vendors, and other related news is discussed. As you can see, questions like “does anyone know a good vendor for MDMA?” are being asked.
The robots, who are available 24 hours a day, will take your order and provide you with all payment information. There is even an authoritative bot online where you can check to see if the bot taking your order belongs to someone you can trust, thereby protecting you from being scammed.
Law enforcement steps in
It’s a bold move to see these criminals move up from what was once something deep and dark and inaccessible to most people, unless you have the skills to download a special browser and navigate your way around the dark web.
It’s fascinating to see how, even in a market like this, digital transformation and innovation are taking place. The drug dealer of the past, shady men doing their nightly business in dark alleys or (mostly) young “runners” with a burner phone and a scooter, are being replaced by young men and women running their business behind a computer, using an online control panel. Not long ago, a 23-year-old Dutch boy was arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison following a DEA sting operation. He was arrested the moment he set foot on American soil, unable to see the Lamborghini he had rented for two weeks and was waiting for him outside the airport…
German authorities reported the seizure of 9 Telegram channels in October of last year. With trading now taking place in the open, and the fact that a Telegram account is always linked to a phone number, authorities should have no trouble enforcing the law and shutting them down.
Conclusion
One thing is sure, this cat & mouse game will never stop.
Stay up to date
Subscribe to my Tech & Innovation newsletter! Click here to subscribe!
