Luckily, Marie’s order wasn’t very large; she only lost about $30 CAD. “Except for those three times, I never got shorted, and the product ranged from good to excellent quality,” she noted. According to Cory, only one online dealer in North America sells truly fentanyl-less heroin anymore.
Despite Telegram’s anonymity, the dark web is still a hot spot for illegal trading of malware, illicit goods, and stolen data (such as stolen credit card information). Even with the increase in law enforcement pressure, the dark web market still achieved a revenue of $2 billion in 2024. Therefore, as long as this dark part of the internet exists, these marketplaces will flourish and emerge. To become an Incognito Market vendor, people were required to register with the site and pay an admission fee.
Latest Data
Lin was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport on May 18 and was presented in Manhattan federal court before U.S. In addition to Empire Market’s more than 18,000 drug listings, another site called Nightmare Market now lists 28,000 drug products, along with the dark web’s usual assortment of stolen credit card numbers, counterfeits, and hacking tools. A new, Reddit-style forum site called Dread, hosted on a Tor hidden service, has already replaced the seized DeepDotWeb as a community hub, where users discuss which site to use when one is taken down by police or turns out to be run by scammers. Dark web markets have exploded in scale and reach in 2025, becoming the most dangerous hubs for trading drugs, stolen data, and hacking tools.
Treasury Sanctions Head Of Online Darknet Marketplace Tied To Fentanyl Sales
Purchasing drugs online also eliminates the danger posed by traveling in possession of illegal substances. If you happen to live far from your dealer—for me, stocking up on dope used to mean taking a Metro trip and walking through a sketchy neighborhood—this is a significant plus. Being able to have your drugs delivered right to your door is so much simpler. Brian, a writer, harm reduction supporter and avid drug consumer in his 60s, hasn’t ever bought directly from the dark web. Before the United Kingdom, where he lives, banned “legal highs” in 2016, he would purchase spice, mephedrone, kratom, salvia and psychedelics from specialty websites.
Police Shut Down Long-running Dark Web Drug Market
JCODE and Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) continue to compile intelligence packages to identify entities of interest. These leads allow U.S. and international law enforcement agencies to identify darknet drug vendors and buyers, resulting in a series of coordinated, but separate, law enforcement investigations, reflected in the statistics announced today. In furtherance of Operation RapTor and in its first action as a JCODE member agency, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) additionally sanctioned Iranian national Behrouz Parsarad for his role as the founder and operator of Nemesis Market following seizure of the market. Parsarad was also indicted by a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Ohio on drug trafficking charges related to the illegal business he ran on the dark web. Operation SpecTor was a coordinated international effort spanning three continents to disrupt fentanyl and opioid trafficking on the darknet, or dark web.
Market Features
CLEVELAND – A federal grand jury has charged Behrouz Parsarad, an Iranian national, for his role as the creator and operator of Nemesis Market, a dark web marketplace designed to enable users to buy and sell illegal drugs and other illicit goods. The market also sold criminal cyber-services such as obtaining stolen financial information, fraudulent identification documents, counterfeit currencies, and computer malware. In total, we collected 248,359 listings from 10 anonymous online marketplaces and 1,138,961 traces (ie, threads of posts) from 6 underground forums. As observed in our data set, the top 3 marketplaces with the most opioid listings are Agora, Evolution, and Apollon. As darknet markets grow more fragmented and boutique, traditional law enforcement methods are becoming increasingly ineffective.
Demystifying The Dark Web Opioid Trade: Content Analysis On Anonymous Market Listings And Forum Posts
He says gaining access to those darkest sites on the platform is not easy. The sellers are wary of being infiltrated by law enforcement, so don’t let just anyone in. Some provide forums that allow people to anonymously express ideas and information banned in certain countries. For example, Lott showed us one that posts a daily verse from the Bible, which is banned in some places like Islamic states and North Korea and heavily regulated in China. The agency, based in The Hague, built intelligence based on evidence from Germany, which it said seized the marketplace’s “criminal infrastructure” in December 2021. Despite the fact Archetyp had clearly raised the bar on security on the dark web, Operation Deep Sentinel – a collaborative effort between law enforcement agencies in six countries supported by Europol and Eurojust – took down the market.
Missing The Wider Landscape Of Digital Harms
The dark web is a hidden section of the internet that you cannot reach with common search engines like Bing or Google. The only way in is through the use of special software that renders all users anonymous and untraceable. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers. On a mundane note, ordering online isn’t as immediate as purchasing in-person. If you’re physically dependent, you’ve got to remember to stock up pretty regularly to avoid withdrawal.
The Crime Supply Chain
- Those suppliers kept using the same IDs for years to gain reputation and familiarity from buyers.
- Instead, they must gain access to multiple, hyper-secure markets and then regularly monitor this wide array of smaller, highly localized platforms.
- That revenue funded Incognito Market’s operations, including paying “employee” salaries and for computer servers.
- “This is so fucked up man, we have the right to do whatever we want to our bodies.”
- The vast majority of “down,” as they call the dreary, unpleasant stuff, doesn’t even contain heroin.
Chainanalysis, a blockchain analysis firm, conducted research that shows that the revenue decreased from $3.1 billion (2021) to $2 billion (2024). Like ransomware, criminals can buy software and inject your devices with viruses. With it, they can spy on people, steal their sensitive data, or secretly control their devices. These software are also capable of launching DDoS attacks and phishing campaigns.
People visit this market to buy stolen credit cards, personal data, remote desktop account credentials, and logs gathered from information-stealing malware. Imagine an underground version of your favorite online marketplace, somewhere hidden, exclusive, and often operating outside legal boundaries. It is similar to an online store, except it’s not the type you’ll find with a quick Google search. From items like drugs, fake ID cards, and hacked bank accounts to more complex offerings like human trafficking, these sites carry all the illegal activities you can think of.
It’s been a constant back-and-forth between cybercriminals and law enforcement, with each new site trying to be smarter and more secure than the last. These sites cater to cybercriminals seeking valuable data, such as credit card numbers, login credentials, and personal information. As of 2020, nearly 57% of the dark web was estimated to contain illegal content, including violence and extremist platforms. Henderson says their investigations are often joint efforts with multiple agencies, both domestically and internationally. They’re selling things that anything essentially illegal that people are going to put a value on to pay to see or experience,” Lott said.
Inspector General Sites
Lin’s undoing came in May 2024, when he was arrested while transiting through New York’s JFK Airport. He later pleaded guilty to narcotics conspiracy, money laundering, and conspiracy to sell adulterated and misbranded medications in the Southern District of New York. The expanding use of cryptocurrencies by terrorist organizations and state-sponsored actors illustrates the dual-edged nature of technological innovations — providing both opportunity and risk.
