It was a resource-heavy operation, involving hundreds of separate investigations by five EU and US agencies. A few weeks before, Dream – the longest running and largest market – was closed under mysterious circumstances. Findings released by the National Student Drugs Survey last year show that preferences of young users are shifting. Almost one in five respondents had used the so-called ‘dark web’ to anonymously purchase drugs online. He has been charged with three offences by US authorities, including conspiracy to commit computer hacking, money laundering and distribution of illegal drugs. Authorities reported that Singh’s operation moved hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs over several years.
Abacus Market
MIRACL provides the world’s only single step Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) which can replace passwords on 100% of mobiles, desktops or even Smart TVs. “Bitcoin is expensive and highly volatile, so $100 today might be $60 tomorrow (or $160),” Terence told me. He and Cory explained that you therefore have to be strategic about when you buy something with Bitcoin, unless you want to pay more than you might have just days before. Keeping money in Bitcoin isn’t the greatest idea, either, for obvious reasons. Instead, they recommend trying to exchange ordinary money for Bitcoin right before you make your transaction. While the purity of coke and heroin that she bought varied somewhat, it was much easier to avoid fentanyl.
Shadowcaptcha Exploits WordPress Sites
Other major news sources blocked in some countries, like the BBC, also have dark web versions. Meanwhile, Singh either personally shipped the drugs from Europe to the United States or arranged for their shipment through US mail or other shipping services. Singh’s customers used cryptocurrency to purchase drugs from him through the vendor sites he operated. A 40-year-old Indian citizen, Banmeet Singh from Haldwani, has been handed a five-year prison in the United States in term for trafficking controlled substances on dark web platforms and has also been ordered to forfeit around $150 million. Finnish Customs also identified the main operator, moderators, and users of the marketplaces and is going to arrest them.
Option3 (formerly Option3Ventures – O3V) primarily seek control investments in the growing cybersecurity mid-market, seeking to build champions with the scale to bring cutting-edge products to market. 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.
More Irish Crime
Use Norton VPN to encrypt the data you send and receive and surf more anonymously. Law enforcement agencies from the United Kingdom, United States, and Ireland participated in the operation that began towards the end of 2022. Ryan Thomas McManus, 31, from Ava Street in Belfast and Ryan Milligan, 29, from Manse Road in Dundrum were given seven-year terms for over 40 drugs offences.
Bohemia Dark Web Admins Arrested In Europe
“A lot of teenage kids are buying their drugs on the dark net,” Det Carbery told a national prosecutor’s conference on Saturday. In many places, including the U.S., the UK, and the EU, accessing the dark web is legal for legitimate purposes. However, many sites on the dark web host illegal content or activities, and engaging with those can lead to serious legal consequences.
The market’s activities were not limited to drugs; it also included counterfeit items like identification cards and banknote forgeries. The Dutch police had been monitoring the market since late 2022, uncovering that several of its servers were located in the Netherlands. “We’re definitely missing a piece where we should be engaging with people online and on the darknet,” he says. We’re back with another video in our Webz Insider video series on everything web data. Freshtools was established in 2019 and offers various stolen credentials, accounts, and host protocols like RDP. It is considered a go-to site for malware purchasing, providing keyloggers, trojans, and other Malware as a Service products.
WhatsApp Desktop Code Execution Risk
- “It became a threatening match and they sent photos of thugs with guns saying they were going to come for me,” he says.
- Mr O’Higgins submitted to Judge Nolan that Mannion had quit a €36,000 a year job with Eircom in 2013 and set up the online drugs business, an e-cigarette business and an auction website.
- IT Governance is a leading global provider of information security solutions.
- According to Europol’s 2025 Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment report, nearly all forms of serious and organized crime now have a digital footprint.
He said he was a drug addict, having first taken drugs aged 11, but denied being a drug dealer. The judge said it was clear from the evidence that the offending coincided with a particularly low point in the accused’s life and an overall deterioration of his well-being, which led to heavy use of cannabis. Despite its extensive operations, technical issues eventually led to an ‘exit scam’ by the administrators, who divided the market’s funds among themselves before its closure at the end of 2023. A 20-year-old British national was apprehended at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and appeared in court in Rotterdam. Getting onto the darknet is shockingly easy – and navigating it is even easier.
“It has become the de facto currency of crime, it permeates all areas of crime; money laundering, child sexual abuse material is exchanged with cryptocurrency,” he said. However, the closure of Silk Road did not end dark web activity; it only dispersed it across other, more resilient markets. Exploring the dark web can be eye-opening, but it’s also risky without the right protection. While the Tor browser boosts privacy, pairing it with a VPN adds a critical layer of security.
Market Operations
The site was used for criminal purposes, such as selling narcotics anonymously.” reads the Finnish Customs’s announcement. This successful operation serves as a warning to other dark web marketplaces and highlights the ongoing efforts to combat cybercrime worldwide. Established in 2019, Russian Market is a well-known and highly regarded data store on the dark web, specializing in the sale of PII and various forms of stolen data. Despite its name, the marketplace operates primarily in English and serves a global audience. It has gained a reputation for being a reliable source of high-quality data for cybercriminals. For every illegal drug, there is a combination of emojis that dealers and consumers use to evade detection on social media and messaging platforms.
Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime
Last week, the court heard that Milligan and McManus were arrested on 5 August, 2013, when several properties they were linked to were searched and drugs were seized. Passing sentence on McManus and Milligan, the judge said the pair were involved in a “widespread supply of a quantity of illicit drugs” that they distributed “both in the UK and elsewhere”. Law enforcement shutdowns are also only one type of disruption that dark web communities face. Dark web market users routinely face voluntary closures (the gradual retirement of a market), exit scams (sudden closures of markets where any money in escrow is taken), or even scheduled maintenance of these markets. What current policing strategies neglect is that dark web markets are not isolated to the storefronts that are the popular target of crackdowns. These are communities stretched across dark and surface web forums which develop shared tutorials and help one another adapt to any new changes.
- Preventive Approach participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.
- Established in 2019, Russian Market is a well-known and highly regarded data store on the dark web, specializing in the sale of PII and various forms of stolen data.
- But it is hackers demanding ransom money, not police, that’s the main worry for those operating DNMs, says Patrick Shortis.
- She also found that the psychedelics were virtually always of high quality.
The drugs that are sold online can either be those that have been around for many years, like cannabis, cocaine, heroin, amphetamines, LSD and MDMA or new psychoactive substances. Search engines can only account for a certain portion of the internet, about 10% actually. AN IRISH MAN wanted by US authorities in connection with the notorious illegal online marketplace Silk Road is set to be extradited to the US to face charges for his involvement with the website.
In one case in recent years Cab seized bitcoin from someone convicted of online fraud, which was worth more than €5 million by the time the bureau sold it, with the proceeds going to victims of the fraud overseas, he said. Bitcoin-specific ATMs, where people can buy cryptocurrency with cash, were being used by street level drug dealers to launder money to “transfer up to their superiors”, the Garda said. “Why would they go to a run-down area in the city centre or out in the suburbs, where they are at risk of being robbed, and their funds being taken, when they can order their drugs online from the safety of their home,” he said.
Bohemia/Cannabia Market Operations
Social media companies are under growing pressure to eradicate drug dealing on their platforms, says Ashly Fuller, a PhD candidate at University College London researching the sale and advertisement of illegal drugs to young people on social media. 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.
So, as the darkweb merry-go-round cranks up once more, the FBI and Interpol are still claiming to have ended online drug dealing. But their expensive campaigns are no more effective than a traditional shakedown on a bunch of dealers on one street corner in one city. Given the explosive growth of these markets, organizations must prioritize proactive threat monitoring.
