By Federico Bertola

Drug trafficking on darknet based marketplaces has become a highly concerning topic in law enforcement activities, recently. Even though Dark Markets represent only a tiny fraction of the global drug trade, they are changing the drug markets' social networks, introducing a new paradigm of the link between vendors and buyers of drugs. The aim of this study is to critically review the dark markets' ecosystem and the previous literature regarding these new marketplaces, trying to investigate how the drug trade is changing with these new technologies, and the role of organised crime (OC) in these new illegal markets. And trying to understand how and whether it involved OC on these cyber drug markets and the chain behind them. Despite opinions of part of the academy, the results show that there are no empirical evidences of direct involvement of OC as vendors in dark markets. However, there is evidence of an indirect role of OC in darknet drug trafficking, as supplier of illegal drugs to the online-vendors. 

AM J QUALITATIVE RES, Volume 4, Issue 2 (Special Issue), pp. 27-34

By Ojasi Gopikrishna

What are the economics of the cyber drug trade that is rampant across the globe? What are the impacts that an illicit online drug trade can have on the economy? How does the economy take into consideration the unreported transactions on the dark side of the internet and what are the positive and negative implications of a widespread trade like this in these globalizing times? This research paper aims to analyze various data and information to find and conclude how the darknet drug trade has had significant economic impact on the international financial sector. This paper also elaborates on why the black market is highly prevalent in the current times and what are the ill-effects of Darknet, in particular, drug trade on the Darknet. The analysis of economic consequences of unreported dealings is also taken into consideration and elaborated on. The paper sheds light on the bleak and disturbing statistics of involvement of various countries in the online drug ring marketplace with countries like the United States, India and Turkey dealing heavily in the illegal Darknet drug markets. A statistical analysis to determine the economic calculations of the drug trade is depicted and conclusions about the economical structure of the dark net drug trade and markets and its impact through the times is elaborated upon. The ill-effects of the Darknet drug trade are highlighted and conclusions drawn in the paper depict the fluctuating condition of the online illegal drug trade market.

Unpublished paper, 2022.

By Andrew Scourfield, Catherine Flick, Jack Ross, David M. Wood, Natalie Thurtle, Darryl Stellmach & Paul I. Dargan

Changes in legislation have affected supply routes of new psychoactive substances such as synthetic cannabinoids with evidence of supply over the darknet. We identified darknet drug markets using an index database and Tor Browser to access markets. We identified SC in product listings using a custom-programmed script. We collected data at bimonthly intervals (August 2016–April 2017). Eleven darknet markets listed SC for sale, the largest number from China, UK, US, Netherlands, and Germany. Formulations available were high purity powder/crystal, smoking preparations and vape preparations. The top five listed compounds from China across the time points were FUB-AMB, ABD-FUBINACA, 5F-NPB-22, MAB-CHMINACA, and NM-2201. 5F-CUMYL4CN-PINACA was unavailable at early time points but emerged during the study. Cost of high purity formulations from China ranged from 1.3 to 3.1 Euro per gram for quantities 1000 g. Europe and North America accounted for 99% smoking preparations predominantly in small packages (<50 g). SC are widely available on the darknet with availability changing over time. High purity formulations are predominantly available from China in quantities up to kilograms with price per gram reducing with increased quantity. Small packages of ready-made smoking mixtures are available from Europe and North America.

Toxicology Communications, 3:1, 7-15, DOI: 10.1080/24734306.2018.1563739 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.10 , 2019.