However, this information ecosphere has been hampered as DeepDotWeb was shut by police, and r/DarkNetMarkets was closed by Reddit. In addition, the United States and international law enforcement partners made 270 arrests of dark web vendors, buyers, and administrators in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States. 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. This section elaborates on the methodology used to identify opioid trading information in the anonymous market and forums. Specifically, we collected approximately 248,359 unique listings and 1,138,961 unique forum traces (ie, threads of posts) from 10 anonymous online marketplaces and 6 forums.
If fewer ships and precursors arrived, then it seemed obvious that fewer drugs would be made and sold. Major UK-based online drug vendors told VICE News that turnover had increased by around 25 percent over the three-month UK lockdown through March, April and May. This came with a rash of orders from apparent newcomers with no knowledge of essential darkweb software such as PGP encryption. As of June this year, there are 30 percent more, with 36,000 deals listed. Individuals across the world can report suspicious criminal activity to the ICE Tip Line 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 866-DHS-2-ICE.
To avoid blocking from the marketplace, we provided as an input to the scraper a session cookie that we obtained by manually logging into the marketplace and solving a Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA). However, some sites, namely, the Empire Market, forced users to log out when the life span of the session cookie was expired. In addition, we set parameters such as sleeping time to limit the speed of crawling. Overdoses from opioids, a class of drugs that includes both prescription pain relievers and illegal narcotics, account for more deaths in the United States than traffic deaths or suicides.
- Immediately change your passwords, enable two-factor authentication, and notify your bank or credit card provider if the leaked information includes your financial data.
- Abacus leans hard on its payment protection system, hitting a 98% success rate—one of the best we’ve tracked—keeping deals smooth between its 15,000+ users and 1,200+ sellers with few hiccups.
- Many users extended escrow to allow for late deliveries, and one crew went so far as to refund users – to the last satoshi the smallest unit of a bitcoin – when packs did not arrive.
- Vice City Market lands at #9 in our 2025 darknet rankings, a drug-heavy platform with an easy-to-use edge that shines in the anonymous trade scene.
- For example, in November 2023, while operating in an undercover capacity on Incognito Market, a law enforcement agent purchased and received several tablets purported to be oxycodone.
Fraud And Hacking Services
During the searches, law enforcement recovered 10 firearms, over 20,000 counterfeit oxycodone pills that contained fentanyl, an industrial pill press, and other manufacturing and distribution supplies. According to court documents, Blair was responsible for distributing more than 1.2 kilograms but less than 4 kilograms of fentanyl, and at least 50 grams but less than 200 grams of methamphetamine. He also admitted to mass-marketing the narcotics by means of an interactive computer service. Described by blockchain firm Elliptic as “the most prolific crypto-fueled black market ever seen online,” Haowang Guarantee trafficked in laundered USDT, fake IDs, and tools for industrialized fraud, often exploiting victims trapped in scam compounds. TRM Labs previously reported that 97% of Chinese chemical vendors surveyed accepted crypto, revealing how stablecoins have become critical infrastructure for global trafficking networks. Dubbed Operation RapTor, authorities say the coordinated strike dismantled darknet drug networks fueling the fentanyl epidemic, marking the largest seizure to date under an initiative known as J-CODE.
Torrez Boosts Vendor Network By 200+
That may serve to reduce some of the collateral harms of the illicit drug market 48 while at the same time concentrating risk and systemic violence among an already marginalised segment of the drug-using population that has little access to drug-delivery methods. While the cryptomarkets do put gentrification to the fore, they also shift power in the marketplace and create new opportunities for vendors to develop exploitative or coercive strategies and techniques 49. Darknet-hosted drug markets (‘cryptomarkets’) are an established model of illicit drug distribution which makes use of specialised online hosting and payment systems to link buyers and sellers remotely.
How To Safely Get Illegal Mail-Order Drugs From Darknet Vendors?
Listings included offerings of prescription medication that was falsely advertised as being authentic. For example, in November 2023, while operating in an undercover capacity on Incognito Market, a law enforcement agent purchased and received several tablets purported to be oxycodone. Testing revealed that these tablets were not oxycodone and were, in fact, fentanyl pills.
Launched in April 2023, it’s risen fast with 15,000+ listings and $2 million in monthly BTC trades, claiming a solid 10% of the darknet drug trade—a nod to its targeted approach. With 8,000+ active users and 600+ sellers, Drughub zeroes in on pharmaceuticals—prescription drugs, recreational stuff, and rare compounds make up 90% of its goods—rounded out by small shares of digital items (5%) and fraud tools (5%). That sharp focus makes it a prime pick for traders hunting meds you won’t find on bigger platforms like Alphabay or Torrez. Vice City Market lands at #9 in our 2025 darknet rankings, a drug-heavy platform with an easy-to-use edge that shines in the anonymous trade scene.
Vice City Tightens Vendor Policies
While these outfits are not traditional DNMs, their success highlights how drug vendors are scaling their operations throughout Russian-speaking countries. In spite of Hydra Market’s disruption in 2022, former Hydra affiliates still found operating in today’s DNMs rely heavily on these infrastructure providers. Last December, a Russian court imposed a life sentence on Stanislav Moiseyev, Hydra Market’s suspected founder and operator, although the Moscow prosecutor’s office did not publicly tie the guilty verdict to Hydra. The court also sentenced fifteen accomplices to anywhere from eight to 23 years in maximum-security penal colonies. The cycle Christin describes—law enforcement takedowns followed by a slow but robust recovery—has played out on the dark web again and again, repeating roughly every year or two. After the late 2013 takedown of the Silk Road, the first real dark-web drug market, more than a dozen replacements rose up to fill the demand for anonymous online narcotics sales.
- In addition, we did not observe big changes in the top opioid commodity origins from 2014 to 2020.
- Its $3M monthly haul reflects a loyal base that likes predictability, though its slower push for new features like multi-currency or 2FA caps its climb.
- Accessing darknet requires using Tor Browser, a special web browser that routes your internet traffic through a global network of relays managed by volunteers.
- Sellers like “ViceRx” and “PillMaster” hold 97% ratings, offering solid drugs with 93% shipping reliability, though stock runs low 5–10% of the time due to its niche.
Investigations
We’ll also discuss examples of major marketplaces, myths about the dark web, and tips on staying safe in case your personal data ever ends up there. Launched in 2020, Cypher Marketplace sells fraudulent documents, stolen credit cards, fake IDs, and malware. 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. Fraud shops are services found mainly on the dark web that sell stolen data and personally identifiable information (PII), which cybercriminals use for scams, identity theft, and ransomware attacks. In 2024, fraud shop inflows declined by 50% YoY, a sharp downturn from the last three years.
Alphabay Market Security
A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Roberts was identified as “Pillpusher” when he was caught shipping packages containing prescription drugs through the U.S. Agents subsequently discovered dozens of tablets of Tramadol, a Schedule IV analgesic that is also commonly abused. Agents also recovered from Roberts’ residence empty boxes that had contained oxycodone and alprazolam (brand name Xanax).
Like DNMs, online pharmacies receive most of their revenues from larger drug resellers. Historically, DNMs have usually cashed out their funds at centralized exchanges (CEXs). Although CEXs remain a stable destination in the DNM ecosystem, the pattern of sending funds to them shifted in 2024, as illustrated in the chart below. Last year, DNM vendors sent a significantly higher portion of their funds to DeFi than they did historically.
This had a knock-on effect on the darknet drug trade, which relies on postal deliveries to keep business moving. The 2022 operation involved sophisticated tracking of cryptocurrency transactions, exploiting poor operational security, and good old-fashioned detective work. Andy Greenberg’s Tracers in the Dark, details how researchers tracked cryptocurrencies through illicit markets, even after privacy-focused tools (like Bitcoin mixers) were used. To shed light on the changes, Daly and blockchain analyst and veteran researcher of Russian darknet markets Patrick Shortis co-authored Breaking Klad — a 40+ page report for Global Initiative. With the help of Russian journalist Andrey Kaganskih and Russian-British journalist Niko Vorobjo, the report details how thousands of such couriers are now operating in Russia, where buying drugs in person is becoming a thing of the past.
Data Collection
Cops picked 50 people, visited their homes and informed them about interception of packages with illegal mail-order drugs which had been sent to their residences. Every time European officers seize drugs in priority mail they perform knock-and-talks or send a warning stating that they’ve found a controlled substance in a letter sent to your address. According to court documents, from around April 2020 through October 2020, Cullen Roberts, 23, of Duluth, Georgia, used the moniker “Pillpusher” to sell prescription opioids and other scheduled narcotics on a Darknet market. Beginning in July 2020, law enforcement began investigating Roberts by conducting a series of undercover purchases of various types of prescription drugs via the Darknet. LegitScript’s investigative analysts frequently conduct research on both the surface web and dark web in our efforts to identify operators illegally selling drugs and other federally regulated products.
