An associate of a U.S. based group which sells firearms on a Darkweb market has been busted. The 29-year-old Gerren Johnson was taken into custody after an international investigation was conducted exposing him as a firearms trafficker. The weapons were smuggled in electronic products and delivered to buyers across the globe especially to people in Australia. In 2017, Gerren Johnson, along with William Jackson were prosecuted on federal charges for delivering firearms without a license from the United States to other parts of the world. They were exposed from hiding behind the anonymity of the darknet in order to sell unlicensed firearms. Johnson was associated with an Armitage International Model Scarab Scorpion 9mm pistol seized in the Netherlands, and a Glock Model 17 Gen 4 9mm pistol which was headed for France. These firearms were smuggled as parcels inside electric switchboards, distribution boards, circuit breakers and disconnect, electricity meters, transformers and other types of devices not immediately detected by the U.S. postal service overseas during transportation. In 2017, Australian gun owners turned in 51,000 firearms ranging from 19th-century weapons to a rocket launcher, during a three-month amnesty. After these firearms were destroyed, the Government concluded that those who still owned such guns would face jail time and harsher penalties. This has put illegal street weapon sellers into a compromised situation. Criminals resort to the Darkweb where transactions are made anonymously. “You can’t just buy a gun, they will ask for a genuine reason for owning a firearm. If you can’t provide one, you won’t get the gun,” reported Philip Alpers, a firearms injury researcher at the University of Sydney. In response, the Australian authorities have gone undercover on the Darkweb. Their successful method led to the arrest of a man who attempted a weapons sale on the Darkweb. On an underground website called BlackMarketReloaded (BMR), the illegally organized criminal group based in Atlanta publicized guns to be sold. This illegal market website works on the Onion Router making it difficult to trace transactions since the identities of buyers and sellers are masked. The username of these dealers on the website is CherryFlavour and they sell guns, including Glock pistols with a price range of $2,300 to $3,400. In June 2013, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) discovered through an investigation that CherryFlavour and another group with the username WorldWide Arms, parceled firearms which were shipped to Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The individuals identified in this group were Sherman Jackson, Brendan Pearson and Gerren Jackson, who lived in Atlanta, Georgia, with a fourth defendant, William Jackson who lived in East Point, Georgia. Arrests of this kind have been made on many occasions by the authorities as plans were ongoing to put a stop to firearm trafficking. This year, out of approximately 10 to 15 firearms that are sold monthly by this group, 31 firearms were seized internationally and confiscated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service before leaving the shores of the United States. Last year, it was made known to the public that the arraignment only contained charges and the defendants were presumed to be innocent of the charges. The illegal organization, trading and use of firearms is a threat and a significant safety concern for any country at all. The high demand for and distribution of these illegal firearms and ammunition in Australia is motivated by organized crime groups to low-level individual criminals, who continue to seek, procure and use firearms to protect their interests and commit violent acts. This time around, Johnson was convicted and sentenced. Firearms were seized in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Australia, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Sweden, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Zambia on the report from the ATF. Australia also obtained $25.4 million to combat the illegal firearms trade in 2016, and this has been a model for the current operations. Johnson was sentenced on Thursday to 33 months in prison after pleading guilty to his smuggling charge in the U.S. District Court in Georgia. The post Darkweb Gun Trafficker Arrested Selling Weapons To Australia appeared first on Deep Dot Web.

New Zealand is seen as a remunerative market since purchasers are always been willing to pay higher prices for their illegal drugs. This is naturally engaging the interplay of the price mechanism, forcing the price of such drugs to rise in the country. Since suppliers are always willing to supply more at a higher price, the drug inflow through the country’s border has also increased significantly leading to a higher number of intercepted drugs by customs agents. The Detective Superintending Officer of the Police Department, Greg Williams, said to reporters that 4-5g of methamphetamine was sold at a street price of $2,500 in New Zealand. A reasonably heavy user might use this quantity in a week. The drug traffickers risk having some of their products taken by the Customs officers since they are inexpensive to be produced overseas. The New Zealand Customs Service has seized many packages over the years. According to data, the number of intercepted drug packages increases annually. The NZCS intercepted 35 packages of cocaine alone in 2015. This number skyrocketed to 93 in just a year. Going by the trend, it can be clearly seen that the number of intercepted drugs was quite small 10 years ago, but has increased significantly in the subsequent years. Methamphetamine, which is one of the highly trafficked drugs has also increased 10 times in five years. LSD, Ecstasy, and Opioids are the other drugs that are trafficked into the country. New Zealand has responded to the high drug influx by seizing and arresting traffickers to send a message. They arrested 13 drug traffickers last year and prosecuted them. In 2016, 3,166 drugs were intercepted at the Auckland Airport International Mail alone, recording an unprecedented increase compared to the 2012 data. In relation to the high influx of drugs into the country, a lot of overdose deaths have been linked to illegally imported drugs, especially fentanyl which is trafficked in higher quantities. According to a report, there are gangs that secretly work with partners in China to get drugs from selected Chinese underground labs into the country. Sometimes, New Zealand is used as a transit stop from where drugs are trafficked to Australia. Just as the rate of drug importation into the country increases, there has been an equal interception by the customs service. In 2015, it was revealed that Drug detection dogs were trained to assist the fight against drug trafficking in the country. The effort to intercept the large trafficked drugs has been effective so far considering the rate and frequency of drug seizure. The country’s custom has improved at intercepting mail substances in recent years. The New Zealand authorities do not only intend to seize drugs, but to ensure that the traffickers are arrested and subjected to the law. Even though the new method of drug packaging and new ways of distributing them will likely be used, the customs service is well prepared to meet the task. The Executive Director of the New Zealand Drug Foundation, Ross Bell, disagreed with the view that high retail drug prices in New Zealand were driving Customs’ seizures up. Ross said that for the past few years, Customs had been empowered both financially and technically to gather intelligence about drugs, making it more competent. He disclosed that it was impossible to detect where the spikes originated from. Bell also defended his country stating that the high retail prices of methamphetamine, MDMA, and cocaine were a result of New Zealand’s distance from the countries where these drugs were being produced. He believes that illicit drug trades as expensive were actually a positive thing because it would scare people away. He also described the issue with methamphetamine as “the balloon effect”. “When you get a balloon and you squeeze one part, it is going to pop out somewhere else,” Bell stated. He indicated that the only way to reduce demand was to support addicts and educate the public about the dangers of illicit drug use. The post Customs Seizures Of Illicit Darkweb Related Drugs Soar In New Zealand appeared first on Deep Dot Web.

Update: Yesterday DeepDotWeb was contacted by both HugBunter and Olympus market and was able them to get them to contact each other to try and sort the issues between them, Olympus market admins apologized for this incident and hurting the whole DNM community and assured this will be sorted, Hugbunter confired he talked to them and will be relaunching soon with a new design (pictures will be updated into this article within few hours) Update 2: Olympus admins requested to add: A day ago we were approached by someone who claimed to be close to HugBunter who offered us Dread’s source code and the onion private key. We made a mistake by accepting that offer. We never had intentions to hurt the community, but we ended up affecting the DNM community because of personal matters between us and HugBunter. We apologize for the wrong we did. We can assure anynoe we haven’t stolen any personal information or published anything about anyone. As of this writing all data we have been handed out was permanently deleted by our end. We remind you that as a market we never scammed anyone, nor customers or vendors, and we’ve always paid our dues in time. Us and HugBunter have sorted out our problems and these events are already behind us. We look forward to serving the community in the years to come and to working with HugBunter to better the DNM community together. — Dread, a hidden service that thousands of Reddit users flocked to after the death of the darknetmarkets subreddit, started unexpectedly redirecting users to an address owned by Olympus Market. This surprised not only thousands of users of the Reddit-like discussion board, but also the site’s owner. The creator of Dread, HugBunter, said that things had finally started to settle down until he discovered that something had gone horribly wrong. Olympus Market claimed they had hacked Dread and that the owner had previously owned a darknet market that exit scammed many months ago. Not everybody likes HugBunter. Not everybody trusts the anonymous pentester known for exposing flaws various darknet markets. HugBunter was known for that. But in addition to running a massive discussion board on the darknet where free speech is promoted, HugBunter offered marketplace security penetration tests. Markets could pay for a report on what they needed to fix in order to prevent a bad actor or law enforcement agency from maliciously accessing their servers. So, when Olympus Market announced they had hacked Dread—a site owned and created by a security professional—did community members believe the announcement? Not for long. Something undeniably awful had happened to Dread’s servers, but that undeniably awful thing did not match the story conveyed by Olympus Market. Dread got compromised. Hands down. Even HugBunter admitted he had made a massive mistake. Olympus’s announcement used the phrase “we hacked Dread” in nearly every paragraph. In a sense, maybe that phrase was accurately used. But they did not hack Dread in the sense the Olympus admin wanted to convey. Instead, Olympus bought server access from one of HugBunter’s admins for an amount that has not yet been made public. They bought the private key to the Dread onion address, the Dread source code, and Dread’s database. When the bigger markets fell to Europol and the FBI, smaller markets rushed to fill the void. Olympus entered the scene after the majority of those marketplaces. They tried hard to become one of the ‘real’ markets. Not long ago, Olympus posted celebratory messages about being added to the DeepDotWeb darknet market list (and in response to their behavior—as of this post—they have been removed from the list). When the subreddit bans started, Olympus pushed their forums as an alternative communication platform. HugBunter, a self-described “neutral entity regarding markets,” proposed Dread. Olympus used constant vote manipulation to highlight posts about their forums and downvote posts about Dread. Prior to the full adoption of Dread by former Reddit users, Olympus reached out to HugBunter and asked to be listed on Dread. HugBunter told Olympus he would add them once he got around to updating his onion link list. When the Reddit bannhammers struck in full force, HugBunter still had not gotten around to adding Olympus. Olympus shilled even harder on the /r/darknetmarketsneoobs subreddit. They vote manipulated and made sure to keep Dread posts downvoted and Olympus forum posts upvoted. Dread implemented marketplace advertisements to help pay the bills. Olympus started publicly calling HugBunter a scammer. They started flooding rumors about HugBunter’s alleged affiliation with every known and unknown market. One of their main justifications for “hacking Dread,” in their words, came from the fact that HugBunter owed the community “crypto worth of over $1 million dollars stolen.” HugBunter is and likely always will be a neutral party. So, roughly one week before the shit hit the fan, HugBunter created a fake account on Olympus to test how far the market would go. He pretended to be a rogue member of HugBunter’s staff. Long story short, fake HugBunter offered to sell Olympus a service where he could “moderate” posts on Dread about Olympus. Deleting posts that painted them in a negative light, etc. They, in turn, asked the “disgruntled employee “ for server access and offered $50,000 for access to the server (Later they confirmed privately they paid 10k). This message has been seen and confirmed by the DNMAvengers Administrator, by former TradeTroude Customer Service Admin SamCulper, and by DarknetMarkets mod Wombat2Combat. HugBunter gave them the credentials to the account on Olympus and they saw the messages between fake HugBunter and Olympus. Olympus was admittedly suspicious, but they still offered $50,000 for server access, but since the “disgruntled Dread employee” only had limited access, Olympus offered to pay a weekly fee for the dishonest post manipulation. HugBunter admitted that his ruse may have pushed Olympus to reach out to his partner to arrange the same kind of deal. According to HugBunter, Olympus paid $10,000 for the Dread private key, source code, and database. HugBunter had not carelessly given out his private key or access to his server either. His partner was more than a hired developer. He referred to him as “a trusted partner” and “like a brother.” For a measly $10,000, HugBunter’s partner sold everything to Olympus. They had their one day of fun; they redirected the site to their own forums and talked about the vulnerability in Dread’s platform they had exploited. Their time has passed. HugBunter is working on rebuilding. He says the worst part about the whole ordeal was losing his memorable onion address. He does not want vengeance on Olympus. In fact, he wants to avoid drama. He is also still working on vendor shops. Olympus claimed he scammed vendors by failing to provide their customs shops, but HugBunter has said vendors would “either be refunded or I can set their site up still.” The post Sorting Through the Dread & Olympus Drama appeared first on Deep Dot Web.

During the last seven days, the police have arrested darknet traffickers in both Germany and the Netherlands. The USPIS ended the career of two individuals who allegedly played a massive role in the Xanax distribution network, and German authorities ended another child abuse site. Last Defendant has Entered Prison in Alphabay Heroin Case Unlike his accomplice, former darknet vendor Chaudhry Ahmad Farooq managed to get several months outside prison before he had to turn himself in. Farooq and his partner Abdullah Almashwali both got caught in a federal investigation into the darknet vendor accounts “Dark Apollo” and “Area 51.” They sold heroin, and according to the court documents filed by federal investors, they sold a lot of heroin. The courts ruled that Almashwali masterminded the operation. Officers recorded the duo operating out of Brooklyn, New York. Farooq, though, mostly picked up and dropped off packages his his partner. Perhaps Farooq’s actions pleased the court; after all, his PGP key ultimately ended their lucrative darknet ventures. Almashwali got sentenced to six years in 2017. He went to prison after hearing his sentence. Farooq managed to avoid sentencing until earlier this year. He left the courtroom with a two year prison sentence that began only days ago. German Man Ordered Drugs to His Grandmother’s House A recent case heard at the District Court in Munich was fairly standard—as far as darknet cases go. A man ordered cocaine and amphetamine and may have successfully completed several orders. One day, though, the police intercept a package and his life changes. Judge Stefan Weickert treated the case like he would any other case, too. The details of the investigation revealed some interesting and unusual pieces of information. During the case, German Police considered investigating the grandmother of the defendant. They would not have been operating outside of the law either. During the case, a 29-year-old man ordered packages of amphetamine from the darknet. Since of the packs made it to his apartment successfully. But, at one point, the man had moved in with his grandmother. In at least one incident, the police intercepted a package headed for the grandmother’s house. Her grandson had left before the package has arrived. Not knowing any better—or even that one could order drugs online—the grandmother accepted and signed for the package. The courier was an undercover police officer. Since the grandmother had signed for the package, she had taken legal responsibility for the package’s contents. It happened again, but the police had already learned the grandmother had not ordered any drugs. The grandson made it clear his grandmother had not played any intentional role in his drug distribution operation. Judge Stefan Weickert sentenced the man to four years in prison. His grandmother chose not to show up in court. Two Darknet Vendors Busted in the Netherlands According to an announcement from authorities in the Netherlands, a lengthy investigation led to the arrest of two major players in the darknet drug game. They did not release the identities of the darknet vendors but revealed the suspects had been shipping thousands of packages across the globe. The arrests are likely connected to the recent crackdown on careless buyers on the Hansa darknet market. The police used many methods to identify to identify darknet vendors; they are higher priority targets than buyers. When identifying the buyers, the police only needed to make sure they received the contents of text input fields before the market encrypted them. (One reason encrypting information oneself is so important.) With vendors, the police tried numerous methods with varying success. Hansa market—before the police took control of it—automatically removed metadata from the pictures a darknet vendor uploaded. The police removed this function. They also created a .xlsx file that contained a ‘phone home’ function. Any vendor who opened the file outside of Tails or on a system not protected by a VPN would reveal their true IP address to the police. Police Seized 60K Xanax Pills in Tennessee Drug Bust In January 2018, a United States Postal Inspector speed what he described as a pattern of suspicious packages that someone had been shipping from a Post Office in Tennessee to addresses across the United States. The investigation led to the discovery of 60,000 fake Xanax pills and a pound of alprazolam powder. The Postal Inspector notified local authorities and pointed them to the Post Office where the packages had been coming from. Narcotics Detective Mike Hoekstra indemnified two individuals that made routine trips to the Post Office and dropped off loads of packages. The packages, a federal search warrant obtained by the USPIS Inspector revealed, contained pressed alprazolam pills. Local authorities received a search warrant for the houses that belonged to 25-year-old Joseph Davis and 29-year-old Erica Dotson—the two suspects seen at the Post Office. They found more than 1.3 million dollars worth of pressed Xanax pills and one pound of drug used to create the pills—alprazolam. German Police Busted Another Child Abuse Forum Admin German Police successfully busted another child abuse site and two members of the site’s staff. One of the arrested staff members owned the site. The police believe he may not have been the site’s only owner though. According to the Public Prosecutor in Hannover, a tip from a third party who had been monitoring the site—a chatroom called Tabooless Chat—led to the owner’s capture. The site provided a method for pedophiles to meet one another for reasons likely prosecutable. In one of the chats, the site’s owner dropped information that led the tipster to believe the offender lived in or near Hannover. The police listened to the tipster’s information and watched the site. They covertly investigated the suspected owner and a suspected technical administrator. When the time came, the Public Prosecutor in Hannover and Hannover police arrested both men and took the site down—according to their press release. The site now shows a seizure banner that tells would-be visitors to get help rather than break the law. Users of other darknet forums and sites for pedophiles have been questioning the legitimacy of the takedown. Local news outlets covered the court case of the admin before the official press release ever surfaced, causing some to believe the site shutdown and owner arrest we’re unrelated events. After the official announcement appeared on the Public Prosecutor’s website, though, doubt slipped from many forum users. Some now wonder who the police arrested; the press release indicated that both men had fully complied with the police. Furthermore, an entity on the darknet started spreading rumors that the police started operating the account of an active member of many of the child abuse sites. The arrest and takedown have sparked some mystery and changes, but have also opened the door for wild theories and beliefs. The post 25.04.18 Darknet and Cybercrime Roundup appeared first on Deep Dot Web.

A 30-year-old Silver Spring man, Kevin Heiting was arrested after he solicited explicit child pornographic photos. Heiting confessed and admitted to the photography, collecting and distributing of the child videos and images in hopes of giving a plea that would lead to his release. However, judge Paula Xinis sentenced him to 20 years imprisonment with an extended lifetime supervision after his release. Federal police from Swiss gave an alert to FBI to dig deep on a suspect who was trusted to circulate teenage pornography through a dark web site based in Switzerland. Federal agents had a thorough investigation in May 2016, and Heiting was found guilty. Investigations The FBI seized two laptops, one iPhone, five hard drives and a tower computer. One of the hard drives had well over 17,000 videos and 5,000 images ranging from files of teenagers, infants, and toddlers all categorized in folders. The computer program based on file sharing showed that Heiting had already shared and received at least 100,000 child pornographic files within a period of seven months. “A great number of users had connected and downloaded files from Heiting’s computer,” wrote the prosecutor. According to a criminal complaint that was filed, Maryland court had in its record an address that belonged to Heiting. The address was recorded as Vierling road which was near the Intercounty Connector. It is said that in August 2016, three months down the line after FBI had searched Heiting’s residence, court documents highlighted that he had bought an additional laptop. He had carried with him that new laptop from Maryland and on his return, it had been evident that he had used the laptop to download and share child pornography. Furthermore, court documents stated that Heiting used the dark web to unanimously chat with a 14-year-old boy convincing him to share his nude explicit images. He had also confessed in that conversation to have collected child pornography since he was nine years old. In August 2016, Heiting was charged with federal child pornography possession but released before the trial with a condition to not possess any internet-capable devices. It was then in February that authorities discovered that Heiting had hidden some of the internet devices in his air purifier. These devices included a laptop, two hard drives, and three usb thumb drives. He was able to acquire a dark web application and a file sharing program. Since Heiting had decided to disobey the law, he had been charged with possession, production, and transportation of child pornography. Heiting will be ordered to pay the people affected and he will need to register as a sex offender in addition to the sentence charged. The hearing has been scheduled in June. Child pornography Child pornography exploits children for sexual stimulation. It is a global issue and the U.S. is at its center for child abuse content in the world. The expansion of the internet and advanced digital technology lies parallel to the explosion of the child pornography market. Most of the child pornographies are distributed through a hidden URL making it hard for the authorities to trace the criminals on the internet. According to federal law, the methods many offenders use to evade law enforcement detention have also become increasingly sophisticated. Purveyors of child pornography continue to use various encryption techniques and unanimous network on the dark web attempting to hide their collection of illicit child abuse. In the recent years, the authorities have been able to trace child pornographic criminals with the help of internet service providers. The internet protocol has successfully traced a 23-year-old New Orleans man, a William and Mary student, and now Kevin Heiting among others. The law states that child pornography is an offense punishable by 15-20 years in prison. The post Man jailed 20 over explicit content from a teenager over the dark web appeared first on Deep Dot Web.

Amber Rudd, a home secretary, and a conservative politician has revealed the plan of the government to provide funds to help in the fight against cybercrime and illicit Darkweb sales. Considering that fact that every country does not take cybersecurity lightly, the United Kingdom treats cybercrime the same way as terrorism is treated. With much emphasis on the cyber attacks that are motivated by the Darkweb anonymity, she hinted at the plan to go all out to expose those who make use of it in a negative way, and ensure that cyber experts join the war. After the UK government went on a search for an expert to crackdown Dark web criminals, Amber Rudd has finally revealed that £9m has been allocated for this course to make it effective. At the annual conference of the National Cyber Security Centre in Manchester, she spoke about how they will go about launching a severe crackdown on the Darkweb to take cybercriminals down. The National Crime Agency is already engaging in a Darkweb investigation by which their intelligence has led to the arrest of several illegal users. According to her, National Crime Agency will have their own share of the funding to enable them to continue with the results-oriented investigation they are undertaking. The support which the funding will provide will not only focus on cybercrime but will also be geared toward the buying and selling of illegal drugs and weapons. The use of the dark web has increased considerably in the United Kingdom, and it is quite unfortunate that its bad side has been more prominent than its positive side. As a very important tool used against cybercrime and a necessary step for cybersecurity, Rudd announced the intention of the government to establish a cybercrime unit in each police force. This is something that has already been done by other countries, and the UK intends to allocate £5m for this particular project. This project does not prevent other firms from forming a partnership with international agencies to combat Darknet crime. UK firms have already taken the next step forward with Interpol to fight against future cyber attacks. The cybercrime unit will be established in England and Wales. The motive behind this is to ensure that the general public has a fair idea of “things to do” and “things not to do” in order to remain safe from cybercriminals. In addition, the government intends to organize a National training program for the local police forces to help them understand how to use the dark web. This will obviously be different from the ones that have already been organized for them, as this will take them deep into Darknet lessons. The whole plan is to make them well prepared to embark and effectively control crimes that occur on the Dark web. After the Manchester terrorism incident, a similar awareness program was launched as leaflets were issued out to the public to keep them aware and informed on the anonymous platform. She, therefore, called upon the public who have the technical know-how to help the authorities to achieve results. A British Cybersecurity firm recently revealed that £130bn was lost in 2017 by internet users in Britain alone. The various government and private institutions have also lost a lot of money to hackers while schools and individuals have found themselves in a situation where their personal details have been offered on the Dark web for sale at cheaper prices. The war waged against the dark web is to defeat cybercriminals and the traffickers who operate from the Darknet, and also users who purchase sophisticated tools from there to skim people. During her speech, she said that a lot of volunteers have been trained to assist local police and the National crime agency to embark on this course. The urgent need to provide the needed training to the local police is as a result of the fact that only 30 percent of them are well equipped technically to meet the minimum standard. Of course, the cyber security of the UK is not bad, but she stressed the need to get better. In mid-2017, a ransomware attack launched infected computers worldwide in over 100 countries. This has caused many countries to increase their budget for cybersecurity. The United Kingdom probably does not want to be a “sitting duck” for cyber attacks and instead possess the strongest cyber defense in the world. The post Amber Rudd Launches Government Crackdown on Dark web appeared first on Deep Dot Web.

The opioid crisis in the United States hasn’t shown signs of stopping anytime soon. For some time now, synthetic opioids ordered via the dark web have proven to be a menace in America, causing the government and law enforcement to act in order to control the situation. Despite law enforcement playing their ‘A’ game, the illegal drugs seem to still find a way into the hands of individuals who under normal circumstances shouldn’t have access. A major factor contributing to the opioid problem is the way they get to the dealers after they have been ordered from the dark web. They are normally shipped by mail, straight to the addresses or homes of the dealers. As a result, this made it challenging for the government to track and prevent the drugs entering into the country. As part of trying to halt that problem, the FBI has taken a stronger and more clever stance by going in hard on synthetic opiates being sold on various dark web marketplaces. Such was the case in the boroughs of New Jersey, Bradley Beach, and Little Egg Harbor. With a tough-love message saying ‘we see you, now stop and get help,’ the FBI embarked on a journey of interacting with residents in New Jersey, all suspected of receiving packages of opiates. Between the 25th and 31st of March, FBI agents engaged directly with eight people who have all witnessed the destruction that this drug possesses. Reports from the office of A Della Fave, Ocean County’s prosecutor’s spokesman indicates that 27 people lost their lives from a drug overdose in Ocean County this year. In addition to that, 99 people were also treated with an overdose antidote. Drug overdose also took the lives of three people in its adjacent county, Monmouth with 78 people also receiving medical antidote treatment, according to Chris Swendeman, Monmouth County prosecutor’s spokesman. Speaking to reporters, an expert in illegal drug trade narrated how the dark web at the moment serves as a primary source for synthetic opioids, especially fentanyl, a deadly opiate which can cause great damage even in small doses. Acting special agent in charge of the FBI in Newark, Bradley Cohen, told reporters that the FBI efforts in that state were mainly on spreading information, substance abuse intervention and education about the risks and dangers of online illegal drug sales. No arrests were made in New Jersey because of that, as agents, however, did not find any illegal drugs at the various locations they visited. Special agent Cohen added that the FBI in New Jersey collaborated with the U.S. Postal Service to visit locations including Mount Laurel, Monroe Township, and Hillsborough all in a nationwide effort to crash online opiate sales. The project is called “Operation Disarray”. “Law enforcement is here…and you need to cease that activity,” Cohen stated, and adding that ” if there is a problem, we’re here to get you help.” Cohen still stressed on the dangers of illegal online drug dealings, added that a user might think that because of the anonymity that the dark web provides, one is safer than in-person purchases. What they do not seem to get is that a user has no knowledge of what other illegal substances drugs bought online might have been mixed with. He made it clear that receiving illegal drugs through the mail is a federal crime and law enforcement is always alert. “If you think that’s being secretive, it isn’t,” Cohen stated. About the challenges law enforcement faces regarding illegal online drug sales, Cohen stated that the law may not clearly need technology assistance to provide access to a user’s online communication and encryption. The post FBI Increases Efforts in Halting Dark Web Drug Use in New Jersey appeared first on Deep Dot Web.

The German police arrested a 29-year-old Austrian man who operated an amphetamine kitchen in a small town in Baden District called Leobersdorf. The Austrian suspect had supplied and distributed a package containing drugs on the Darknet. The police in Vienna on Friday reported that this activity led to the arrest. Moreover, on November 14, 2017, police discovered that the suspect sold 700 grams of amphetamine on the market in Friedeswald. The suspect also sold another kilogram on the internet. The police made a house search at the suspect’s residence in Leobersdorf and uncovered a lab producing more than 600 grams of amphetamine at a time, making this an illicit drug kitchen. Furthermore, the customs officers in Frankfurt seized another package from the suspect on April 5. The package comprised of 100 grams of amphetamine, which the man had sent to an unknown address. The suspect used his real name in sending the package but sent the package to one of his forged addresses. At last on April 5 the wanted Austrian man was finally arrested with an accomplice after an attempted robbery. The police force also with the same accomplice was able to arrest another 24-year-old Austrian who had 14 grams of amphetamine on his person. Nevertheless, the two Austrians admitted to the crime as they were cross-examined. Furthermore, the 29-year-old admitted to making over 20 darknet drug sales. In general, the two men manufactured and delivered more than 1,400 grams of amphetamine themselves. The goal was to sell 20 grams at a time, costing almost 200 Euro per sale. Germany’s drug kitchen Germany is well known for the invention of many popular drugs. An investigation has shown that in the provinces of eastern Germany, most drug kitchens exist. Explicitly, the production of illicit drugs in Germany started with drugs such as pervitin, cocaine diacetylmorphine also known as heroin and even the opioid oxycodone. Through the investigations mentioned above, the production of three drugs were namely amphetamine, MDMA (ecstasy) and methamphetamine. Amphetamine Large packs of amphetamines were found all over the investigation areas, with the north and east of Europe reported having the most number of packages. These were discovered in the urban areas of southern Europe. However, the highest concentrations were found in Saarbrucken. MDMA (Ecstasy) Large amounts of MDMA were found in urban communities in Germany and the Netherlands. The results of the investigation indicated that Amsterdam led Europe’s Ecstasy production, with about three other Germany cities topping the capital Berlin, which placed in in 6th position. Studies show that in many parts of Germany, MDMA production levels are higher this year than in the previous years, with huge increments seen already in a few urban areas. Methamphetamines The use of methamphetamine was observed to be amassed in the eastern parts of Germany, with Chemnitz and Erfurt leading the chart in Europe, trailed by the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It was discovered that its use was highest in Cyprus which is nowhere near Germany. It was however observed that the production level of methamphetamine in other areas were very low. Nevertheless, the top cities in Germany were Chemnitz and Erfurt. The post 29-year-old ran amphetamine kitchen in Leobersdorf appeared first on Deep Dot Web.

A Brisbane woman, 32, has been arrested and charged with buying and selling illegal drugs from the dark web. The female drug dealer has been accused of importing a package which was later intercepted by Australian Border Patrol Police. This was in response to collect intelligence on the illegal importation from the United Kingdom, following an investigation by Australian Federal police (AFP). The anonymity through which the dark web operates has been the catalyst of illegal activities on the internet. It has acted like an underground black market where there is a sampling of goods and services that attract the interest of illegal handlers who have a great pique with the police and law enforcement agencies. This way they have been able to evade the authorities. On the darknet, a user can purchase goods and services that would otherwise attract the attention of the authorities. Drugs and weapons are specially packaged in shipments that escape x-ray scans through consignments that mimic electronics or other instruments. The purchase through the dark web is enabled by the use of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoins and the use of web-hosts that cannot be infiltrated. “The Brisbane woman placed her order using a dark web portal, made payment using bitcoin and later organized for the importation of several consignments of illegal drugs from the United Kingdom,” Terry Price said. The Police force led by Terry Price, the Border Force regional patrol commander for Queensland continued: “This is now a mission accomplished and people shouldn’t make any more assumptions that the dark web is Invisible to Australian Agencies.” Terry said that they had been able to detect illegal imports and trades made through the dark web black markets with the help and close collaboration among all law enforcement agencies. He added that last year, border officers had been deployed to focus on controlled substances being imported after purchasing them from the dark web. Last year AFP also claimed to have received intercepted data by authorities who cracked down on Hansa darknet marketplace. Users of the dark web have always felt shielded from authorities and it was a breakthrough when Australian authorities intercepted a shipment of drugs containing Ecstasy and opioids purchased through the darknet. Most of these drugs have very high concentrations that render them reasonably difficult for common users to determine what doses are harmless. It is believed the woman had used a portal on the web where she had arranged for an array of drug shipments from Britain. It is alleged that she used bitcoins in placing the orders and pay for the delivery too. The notoriety of some darknet portals has provided authorities with leads to follow in the crackdown on illegal dark websites. Some site admins often flaunt their web discourses on social media and the common worldwide website scouting for prospective visitors. But it has led to some sites going down. The infamous market popularly known as Silk Road was taken down by American law enforcement agencies two years ago. In a statement, the Australian authorities underscored the fact that the dark web and their operations were not entirely invisible. They also brought to light the importance of inter-agencies working together to curb back activities carried out on the underground black market. There was a close collaboration of various Australian agencies with Britain’s law enforcement on the crackdown on this specific shipment. The post Australian agencies: “Never assume the dark web is invisible” appeared first on Deep Dot Web.

According to a press release published jointly by the Australian Border Force and Australian Federal Police, a Brisbane woman appeared in Brisbane Magistrate’s Court on April 13 for drug trafficking and importation related offenses. Late last year, the press release revealed, the Australian Border Force (ABF) intercepted an MDMA package that someone in the United Kingdom had shipped to the 32-year-old suspected darknet drug buyer. Evidence gathered later allegedly revealed that the woman had used bitcoin to purchase a number of substances from vendors on one or more darknet markets. After the ABF seized a package of MDMA headed for the woman in December 2017, they seemingly left the case alone for a period of time. If not for what happened next, they may not have pursued the case at all; they announced that the first packaged contained only a “small amount of MDMA.” Some countries, such as the Netherlands, have a somewhat lenient policy regarding small quantities of drugs ordered from the darknet. In the most recent operation by Dutch police, they knocked on hundreds of doors in an attempt to contact darknet drug buyers they had identified during the time they operated Hansa Market. Instead of making arrests, the police only warned the buyers not to purchase drugs online. The Dutch police made a single arrest—the arrested Hansa Market customer had allegedly purchased more than what officials considered a “personal use” amount. The Brisbane woman had likely ordered a personal amount of MDMA. Whether or not that would have slipped under the radar, we will never know. She ordered another package. In January 2018, ABF seized a package of fentanyl headed towards the same woman. The package had also been shipped from the United Kingdom. ABF officials notified the Australian Federal Police (AFP) of their findings. The United States treats fentanyl cases with a high priority. DeepDotWeb covers the arrest of a darknet fentanyl vendor almost every week. Sometimes the vendor sold “oxycodone” pressed with fentanyl, making them a higher priority target, but often the vendor simply sold fentanyl. In this case, the ABF pushed the investigation over to the AFP not long after intercepting a fentanyl package. This time, though, the press release left out the “small amount” description. We do not know how much fentanyl the woman had imported. Roughly one month after the ABF sent the case to the AFP, the AFP executed search warrants at the woman’s home in Brisbane, Australia. The AFP discovered—assuming they wanted to find drugs—exactly what they had hoped to find. They found and seized more MDMA, oxycodone pills, DMT powder, and LSD tabs. All in unknown amounts and quantities. They have charged her with two counts of importing border controlled drugs at a marketable quantity. That charge applies to the two seized packages. Another four count of importing border controlled drugs (less serious than marketable quantity importation). And nine counts of violations of the Drugs Misuse Act. The post Australian Woman Charged for Fentanyl Importation appeared first on Deep Dot Web.