Assuria Cyber Security solutions provide protective monitoring of systems and user activity across the whole IT infrastructure. TWO Co Antrim men were arrested after plotting to buy guns on the ‘dark web’ from an undercover police officer posing as an arms dealer, a court heard yesterday. The accused told gardaí that he had intended to smoke or bake the cannabis he ordered. He said he was a drug addict, having first taken drugs aged 11, but denied being a drug dealer.
How Often Do People Buy Stuff Of The Darknet In Ireland?
Sipulitie was launched in February 2023 after the seizure of its predecessor, Sipulimarket, which earned over €2 million. The same admin later launched a chat-based drug sales platform, Tsätti, in 2022, which was taken offline along with Sipulitie. “At the Finnish customs, we have effectively and with many different means intervened in criminal activities taking place on the dark web over the years. The smooth cooperation of the authorities at both the national and international level is a key factor in the fight against online crime” said Director of Supervision Hannu Sinkkonen from the Finnish Customs.
Dutch Police Arrest Admin Of ‘Bohemia/Cannabia’ Dark Web Market
Reboot SEO Company used the online analytics tools Ahrefs to discover the amount of searches for each country across the US, UK and Europe to determine the interest in The Dark Web. Prosecutors said he is one of eight defendants who have been convicted as part of the drug trafficking organization. Among the evidence found were communications from at least 19 email addresses tied to dark web transactions controlled by Singh. Singh personally shipped or arranged the shipment of the drugs from Europe to Ireland. When agents raided one residence, they recovered 59 kilograms of MDMA, 14 Kilograms of ketamine, and other drugs.
This further complicates monitoring efforts because now you need to search for the related Telegram channels and track activity there and on the marketplace itself. A second administrator of Bohemia/Cannabia was arrested in Ireland in the context of the same operation, which leveraged data from the joint international investigation. Asking the “right way,” according to Barratt, should yield enough information about the source of the substance to understand what type of risk it poses to the community if it turns out to be adulterated.
Missing The Wider Landscape Of Digital Harms
Bingham believes we are missing an opportunity to engage directly with people on the channels where they’re buying drugs. In April he will deliver a presentation to the College of Psychiatrists on how health professionals could use the darknet to interact with users – particularly those who may not be accessing more traditional drug services. The so-called “dark web” – that corner of the internet where most of the illicit activity in cyber-space happens – is providing ready and relatively “risk-free” access to drugs for a demographic that defies the stereotype of the Irish drug addict. They are tech-literate, middle-class, able to access credit cards and often have an interest in physical fitness.
Finnish Customs Shut Down The Tor Darknet Marketplace Sipulitie And Seized The Servers Hosting The Platform
However, new local patterns have emerged, along with unique risks that are less common in offline markets, such as exposure to cyber fraud or health concerns caused by the use of unregulated substances by unpractised users. Despite these risks, digital drug markets are often seen as a safer alternative to street dealing, attracting new users who might have avoided traditional markets due to fear of violence or law enforcement. Among the various illicit digital markets, the drug trade is one of the most prominent. In 2024, darknet marketplaces generated over US$1.7 billion in cryptocurrency-enabled drug transactions, marking year-on-year growth of over 20%.
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Pharmaceutical drugs are also appearing on the illicit drug market and he said many of these are counterfeit but appear just like the genuine product. It’s software that anyone can download for free and allows users to access the Dark Web. At the same time it hides users’ browsing activity and the fact they even are accessing this secretive part of the internet. “When we talk about illicit prescription drugs, it means they weren’t prescribed to you by a doctor,” she said. It has been reported that 2.5 million users access ‘underground’ sites every day.
Compared to its predecessors, Archetyp enforced enhanced security expectations from its users. These included an advanced encryption program known as “Pretty Good Privacy” and a cryptocurrency called Monero. Unlike Bitcoin, which records every payment on a public ledger, Monero conceals all transaction details by default, which makes them nearly impossible to trace. CFISA was formed by a group of academics, security and fraud experts to explore ways to increase security awareness among audiences, including consumers, employees, businesses and law enforcement. A man from Nagytarcsa, a town near the Hungarian capital city of Budapest, has been apprehended by Hungarian police with assistance from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation for allegedly selling drugs internationally on the dark web. By offering so many options, these sites also just make it easier for psychonauts to explore what’s out there.
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- Law enforcement shutdowns are also only one type of disruption that dark web communities face.
- 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.
- But while anonymous email services can help protect your identity, they don’t make you immune to threats like email spoofing or social engineering.
- The student told gardaí he intended to smoke or bake the more than €4,000-worth of cannabis and admitted to ordering drugs online on three previous occasions.
- The same admin later launched a chat-based drug sales platform, Tsätti, in 2022, which was taken offline along with Sipulitie.
She added that the drugs were often counterfeit and “could be a mixture of anything at any strength”. There is no single solution to data security though, according to Reboot SEO Company. Also last year, a number of people were prosecuted for using The Dark Web for illegal purposes.
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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.
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. Buying drugs on the dark web is often seen as a safer alternative to navigating an unpredictable, adulterated local supply. To put it to the test, a team of researchers analyzed the composition of over 60,000 drug samples—some purchased from the dark web, some bought in-person. Three other major sites have also been linked to exit scams in the last 12 months. So, the police operation comes at a time when many people may already be questioning their shopping habits.
Who Needs The Dark Web? Drug Sales Flourish On Social Media
The US Department of Justice has claimed that his narcotics charge is the most serious of his three offences and in America there is a minimum sentence of 10 years handed down to those found guilty of illegally selling narcotics. Davis allegedly went under the name Libertas when he was an administrator on the website. It has been claimed during his time as an administrator Davis dealt with questions from site users and helped categorise some of the items available for purchase. 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.
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. According to the Index, the online purchasing of synthetic drugs may suggest the existence of an established cyber environment, which implies a heightened risk of cyber-dependent criminality.
