The CIA’s onion site allows users to securely report threats or suspicious activity, especially in regions where online surveillance is common. Its presence on the dark web also supports intelligence gathering and helps track cybercriminal activity. Unfortunately, many dark web websites are devoted to the illegal trade of leaked personal information. If you’ve ever experienced an uptick in phishing attacks and spam after a data leak or breach, it may be because your personal information has been posted to the dark web. Onion sites, or dark web websites, are sites on the dark web that can typically only be accessed using special software like the Tor browser. These sites use “.onion” domains, which are made up of random letters and numbers up to 56 characters long.
Center For Information Security Awareness (CFISA)
Mr Le Vert asked the court to consider imposing Section 100 of the Criminal Justice Act 2006. He said the question is that, given what this man “demonstrably has to give”, should he be curtailed by the recording of a conviction for an offence he committed when he was 19-years-old. The detective agreed with counsel that his client was “not in a particularly good way” when he first met with him and his mental state at the time was “a little precarious”.
Dark web websites won’t show up on Google, but they are indexed by dark web search engines such as Torch. In January, he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The Bohemia marketplace ceased operations in late 2023 due to service disruptions, while its members suspected an exit scams of a rogue developer.

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An Indian man who trafficked countless shipments of drugs on the dark web to Ireland has been jailed for five years in the United States. Users on Darknet sites can see how products are rated by others and the prices are often lower than those on the street. The five sentences handed down to Ulbricht showed that the US legal system is taking a very heavy hand against those involved with illegal activity on the Dark Web. Det Gda Murphy agreed with Pieter Le Vert BL, defending, that his client took responsibility for importing the drugs and said he was not going to sell them, but admitted he would give some to his friends. The judge previously adjourned the matter to allow for the canvassing of charitable organisations and for a proposal to then be put to the court regarding a suitable entity that could benefit from the student’s experience and skill-set. She said that since his detection, he has made “a very impressive turn around in terms of his own circumstances”.

The Global Organized Crime Index 2023
My sources agree that unwanted fentanyl is found in lower levels in drugs bought online compared with street drugs. North America, Northern Europe and Western Europe are also major consumer hubs. According to the latest Index, North America’s average drug trade score rose by 0.13 points, while the scores for Northern Europe and Western Europe increased by 0.31 and 0.27, respectively.

An international law enforcement operation led to the arrest of one of the three administrators of the dual dark web market ‘Bohemia/Cannabia,’ known for hosting ads for drug sales and distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Initial studies into drug sales on social media began to be published in 2012. Over the next decade, piecemeal studies began to reveal a notable portion of drug sales were being mediated by social platforms. In 2021, it was estimated some 20 percent of drug purchases in Ireland were being arranged through social media.
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Most dark web drug shipments originate from the US and Northern and Western Europe, as well as Russia. Russia also recorded the highest proportion (85.7%) of drug users purchasing on the darknet in 2022, and a drug trafficking average of 5.75 in the 2023 Global Organized Crime Index. The main drug sold online is cannabis, followed by synthetic drugs, cocaine and, to a lesser extent, opioids. Synthetic drugs show a higher proportion of sales on the darknet and in online shops than other drugs, while cannabis and cocaine are more likely to be obtained through social media, largely because of their partial legality and social acceptability. Heroin and other opioids do not have a significant presence online, as their sale is highly regulated and controlled.
Legacy And Lasting Impact Of The Silk Road
- 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.
- A Southern California duo face federal sentencing for selling tens of thousands of fentanyl-laced pills and cocaine on the dark web, causing the death of at least one teenager.
- 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.
- 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.
- The shutdown of Archetyp, a major dark web drug market, demonstrates that law enforcement takedowns have only short-term effects, as such markets quickly re-emerge and adapt.
The value of these markets was estimated by the UNODC in September of 2018 to stand at $14 million (£11 million) to $25 million (£20 million) per month – a tiny fraction of overall illicit drug sales. Still, the EU has funded a three-year, €5 million (£4.5 million) project, project, TITANIUM, with the aim of de-anonymising criminal bitcoin users and providing “court-proof” evidence of underground market activity. By 2013, the Silk Road had grown to have over 10,000 products available for sale, with the majority being illegal drugs. This growth demonstrated the demand for an anonymous marketplace and showed the world how cryptographic tools could be used for illicit activities.

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- 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.
- According to the PSNI, there are about 100 organised crime gangs in Northern Ireland, with around a quarter believed to have connections to paramilitary groups.
- Examination of the computer showed Sinclair intended to sell up to 1,000 MDMA tablets a week to a select list of a dozen customers, the court heard.
- 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.
- McDonald pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to distribute at least 400 grams of a substance containing detectable amounts of fentanyl and cocaine alongside the possession of firearms in a drug-trafficking operation.
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.

“This makes it very difficult to track monies or indeed to identify vendors, although much success has already been achieved against hosts of Darknet market places and vendors alike,” commented the detective sergeant. Det Gda Murphy said gardaí subsequently searched the student’s then address and found further drugs, including ketamine worth €1,000 and a small amount of cannabis. He also pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis and ketamine for sale or supply at the same address on the same date. Street dealers, and those who buy from them, can be more easily identified and tracked than in the ever-changing online marketplace. At the end of April 2020, prescriptions drugs with a street value of £100,000 were seized.

Examination of the computer showed Sinclair intended to sell up to 1,000 MDMA tablets a week to a select list of a dozen customers, the court heard. Sinclair is further accused of transferring criminal property, while Hall faces additional charges of having Class B and C drugs with intent to supply and possessing criminal property. Sinclair (32) was arrested after police seized ecstasy pills, herbal cannabis and diazepam tablets worth an estimated £100,000 during separate raids at his Cranagh Road, Coleraine address and the home of a co-accused in east Belfast. Many of those members were previously identified and arrested, and the police expect that more arrests will follow as more evidence is unearthed from the seized infrastructure. It is estimated that the administrators have made a profit of about 5 million Euros ($5.47M) from the operation of the dark web market. The darknet market also had most of its server infrastructure in the country, which is now under the police’s control.
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The marketplace reportedly added 82,000 advertisements daily and facilitated 67,000 transactions every month. Barratt also emphasized that, as drug checking continues to be legalized, new service providers should prioritize asking people more specific questions about the source of their submitted samples. To wrap their heads around these contradictory results, the authors developed substance-specific explanations for how “the dynamics of the cryptomarket” might influence drug composition. For example, the ample in-person supply of MDMA in the Netherlands may drive the differences observed between cryptomarket and offline sources. Similarly, some cryptomarket drugs—MDMA powder and cocaine—were far less likely to contain adulterants.
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Its emphasis on user anonymity and document forgery makes it a core tool for identity fraud. Founded in 2014, BriansClub remains one of the oldest and most infamous dark web markets for stolen credit cards, fullz (complete identity kits), and dumps. Launched after the takedown of AlphaBay in 2021, Abacus Market has rapidly risen to prominence. It features over 40,000 listings including narcotics, counterfeit items, hacking tools, and stolen data. The marketplace is well-known for its bug bounty programs and robust security mechanisms, including mandatory 2FA.