The changing face of drug dealing

Traditionally, drugs have been bought by ringing up your friendly neighbourhood dealer. You would agree a time and place to meet, either some shady alley or perhaps one of your houses if you were actually friends. Drugs would then be transacted, for a probably pre-determined price, with the purchase method being cash.

There are several downsides to this delivery method. Firstly, if you’re not well acquainted with this dealer there could be issues with quality. If you don’t know them well, and they’re not counting on your repeat business, they’re much less likely to give you the high-quality items you crave. And, it’s not always convenient to meet said dealer. Especially when your tasty pile of cocaine is running dry at six o’clock on a Tuesday morning, it’s hardly likely they’ll be awake and ready. Add into this the improbability that your dealer has a chip and pin machine, and one can see why technology might offer a new and more exciting method of drug collection.

Technology has recently given us marvels such as mobile phones, 3D printing and electric cars. It has also given us the dark web. The dark web, for those unacquainted, is World Wide Web content that is only accessible when using special software like the Tor browser, which bounces communications around a distributed network of relays around the world, making it difficult for somebody watching your Internet connection to learn what sites you visit. As a result, this prevents those crafty police officers from tracking who you’re messaging, what porn you’re watching, and what drugs you’re buying. It is possible to buy anything on the dark web, from your mate’s Uber account details to your mum’s phone number. Tread carefully or your friends will buy you a mail order Thai bride. The system is very similar to browsing through Amazon for headphones. You can view the best-selling cocaine products, highest-rated MDMA, and so on. You can even give feedback after purchasing your drug (or other illegal item), to ensure that other addicts like yourself are aware of the quality.

The first online dark web marketplace was Silk Road. Launched in February 2011, it was operated by an American whose real name is uninteresting. However, he often referred to himself online as the much more impressive ‘Dread Pirate Roberts’. After a lengthy investigation by the FBI, Silk Road was shut down in October 2013. But, you know what they say: you can never keep a good drug/arms dealer down. As a result, Silk Road 2.0 went live soon after, before being taken down once again by the sneaky FBI. We are now on the third iteration of Silk Road. Competition is fierce in the dark web market. Alphabay is now the largest vendor, but the number of sites available grows regularly. With over 20 still alive to our knowledge, the FBI are simply unable to point their big Trump-shaped weapons in the direction of the problem. Governmental departments cannot crush this phenomenon without destroying the Internet. The process of buying on Alphabay is simple. First, select the drug you want and the desired amount you require. Purchases are usually made through Bitcoin (more on that another time), an online currency available for purchase using conventional money. This is to avoid the use of debit/credit cards, another form of accountability.

After this, the largest flaw in the plan appears. The drugs have to be sent somewhere, thus lifting the veil on the oh-so-sacred shadowy nature of the dark web. Despite this, upon filling out the address you want your drugs delivered to, a few days later your order will be delivered to your door. How exciting! I know I have already compared this process to an Amazon shopping experience, but it really is remarkably similar.

Now at this point, some of you may be asking such questions as, “How is it at all safe to order drugs to an address?”, and “Surely it’s obvious you’re going to get caught?” Both valid questions that I asked when I first heard about the system. Well to address the issue, I did some ‘investigation’, and found some people who were testing this method, purely for the sake of curiosity, obviously. This is what went down. A quantity of marijuana was ordered and after a few days a box was delivered to the house. Not just any box though. A cellophane wrapped Wi-Fi router box. This was confusing at first; the box was unwrapped and after digging through layers of tinfoil there was a vacuum packed quantity of marijuana. Fascinating. So not only was the package vacuum sealed, it was buried under a mountain of aluminium, placed in a deceptively labelled box and then resealed in cellophane. Naturally, the seller received a five-star rating. Technology appears to be taking over every aspect of our lives. If recent innovations allow Amazon to brutalise the British high street, there appears no reason why similar technologies cannot do the same to those who sell drugs. With the level of #innovation relentless, it seems there is no aspect of society safe from the advancement of the interconnected world. Even, it seems, traditional drug dealers.