5 ms·

Europol investigation busts 150 'high value' darknet vendors

47 points by samizdis 5y ago

r721 5y ago
Europol press release: https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/150-arrested-in-dark-web-drug-bust-police-seize-%E2%82%AC26-million https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/150-arrested-in-... DoJ press release: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/international-law-enforcement-operation-targeting-opioid-traffickers-darknet-results-150 https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/international-law-enforcement...
- Scoundreller 5y ago
  > Buying on the dark web comes with risks: > Devices can be exposed to an array of malware ready to wreak havoc on the buyers’ data. ???
  - upofadown 5y ago
    Yeah, if this was possible, why are the authorities not doing it to catch buyers?
    - nivenkos 5y ago
      They have done it before - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/04/tor-attacks-nsa-users-online-anonymity https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/04/tor-attacks-ns...
  - Tenoke 5y ago
    Modern marketplaces don't even use js (and some don't work if you have js enabled) and I expect a higher chance of malware on random clearnet sites..
    - Scoundreller 5y ago
      [flagged]
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - flatiron 5y ago
    straight up FUD. last time i was on a darknet market it wouldn't load the main page unless you disabled javascript. i know the Tor browser has to serve many masters but its always shocking that it doesn't disable javascript by default but give the user an easy way to add sites to the allow list. or at least just disable javascript on .onion sites
    - Tenoke 5y ago
      Tor Browser comes with noscript installed to quickly do that if you need.
      - Scoundreller 5y ago
        It should be a quick way to re-enable js, not the other way around. Learn to drive before considering driving without a seatbelt.
      - flatiron 5y ago
        but not displayed. so you right click the bar, click customize, find noscript, drag it to the bar, then go to customize, then go to default, a bunch of confusing options ("why is there a script and a noscript option? if i say no to noscript does that mean script? what is this crap!") which are defaulted to running javascript on the darkweb. that's just silly IMHO
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Tenoke 5y ago
I can't help but think that the series of extremely big operations by a fair amount of countries, interpol and resources can't be worth catching 230kg of drugs (which includes a lot of weed) spread over 150 sesperate vendors. The crypto $ amount is also misleading as crypto has 10+x'd quite quickly. I wish they'd go after the operations that actually hurt people. Hell, you can walk in plenty of places in Berlin (and it's often German authorities in the lead) and spot much worse dealers than those selling online.
- kiba 5y ago
  My question is why we keep doing the same thing while expecting something to improve. It's not like law enforcement hadn't heard of criticism against the drug wars before.
  - Melting_Harps 5y ago
    > My question is why we keep doing the same thing while expecting something to improve. An existential dilemma: these institutions need to justify their budgets and positions. So, headlines are the currency they trade in and this 'high value' bust results in good PR for their agencies/departments, but still imparts low value to Society over all. It's quite clear their are bigger fish to fry if the goal was to reign in on illicit dealings, be it from the Panama papers to the Paradise papers it's clear that illicit trafficking of funds is done not with Cryptocurrency on the DNM, but rather through traditional institutional banks. But, the selective application of the Law and a tiered justice system ensures that laundering money for cartels is met soley with a fine, whereas charges like hosting a website (SR1/ Ross Ulbricht) can get you 2 life sentences.
- Y_Y 5y ago
  Drugs are a great way to raise cash for other criminal enterprise, the same way you have to mine ore early on in Red Alert. Maybe they'd argue that they're cutting at the root here? Don't people do weapons and human trafficking on the markets? I think it would be cool if there was more progress made on that front.
  - 5y ago
PrinceRichard 5y ago
Another shameful footnote in the war on drugs. Putting what we choose into our own body is a basic human right. Mutually consentual exchanges of goods or services is a basic human right. All victims of these actions are victims of human rights abuses. Part of the global awakening is recognizing this, and rejecting the so-called government's authority to imprison people participating in voluntary exchanges. If we are concerned about the nature of the goods or services being exchanged, we need to remember that our right to impose on others' freedom comes about only when they engage in direct violence.
- estaseuropano 5y ago
  I'm not a fan of the US war on drugs (which is not really a thing in Europe), but there is a difference between weed and meth. One may ruin your life, one WILL ruin your life. You argue from a point of abstract principles, but miss that there is a reality. Just as there is food safety and certain things are not allowed to be sold because it would be dangerous to you or harmful to the world to eat them, so some drugs also need to be illegal. If you don't believe that go and see any drug addict street, or visit a Brazilian slum where the kids waste away on glue fumes. At societal level high rates of hard drug consumption are unbearable and destroy any healthy community. Opium had two whole wars around it as it was forced into the market by Brits and French and destroyed the fabric of Chinese society with entire generations of men disappearing into (legal) opium dens and spending all their and their families' fortunes while wasting away and letting their children starve. No one wants to be a drug addict and no reasonable person that has a basic understanding of what hard drugs can do can think drugs like that should be legal. Meth, crack and co are a dozen times worse than opium, not to mention krokodil or similar poison that will straight up destroy your organs from first use. Portugal has taken the right route, with drugs still illegal but drug use not anymore criminalised, so they are getting people off the streets and off the drugs. There is no benefit in locking people up for using, as they 99% don't want to use - they just can't find the way out. But that hard drugs themselves need to be illegal and fought is without question.
  - Stevvo 5y ago
    Saying Meth will ruin your life is not consistent with the data. Before 1971 you could buy it in any pharmacy without prescription and there was no usage epidemic. The vast majority of people who use Meth today do not get addicted.
LatteLazy 5y ago
What a huge waste of time and resources. And my only drug is caffeine.

47 points by samizdis 5y ago

r721 5y ago

Europol press release: https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/150-arrested-in-dark-web-drug-bust-police-seize-%E2%82%AC26-million https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/150-arrested-in-... DoJ press release: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/international-law-enforcement-operation-targeting-opioid-traffickers-darknet-results-150 https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/international-law-enforcement...

Scoundreller 5y ago
> Buying on the dark web comes with risks: > Devices can be exposed to an array of malware ready to wreak havoc on the buyers’ data. ???
- upofadown 5y ago
  Yeah, if this was possible, why are the authorities not doing it to catch buyers?
  - nivenkos 5y ago
    They have done it before - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/04/tor-attacks-nsa-users-online-anonymity https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/04/tor-attacks-ns...
- Tenoke 5y ago
  Modern marketplaces don't even use js (and some don't work if you have js enabled) and I expect a higher chance of malware on random clearnet sites..
  - Scoundreller 5y ago
    [flagged]
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- flatiron 5y ago
  straight up FUD. last time i was on a darknet market it wouldn't load the main page unless you disabled javascript. i know the Tor browser has to serve many masters but its always shocking that it doesn't disable javascript by default but give the user an easy way to add sites to the allow list. or at least just disable javascript on .onion sites
  - Tenoke 5y ago
    Tor Browser comes with noscript installed to quickly do that if you need.
    - Scoundreller 5y ago
      It should be a quick way to re-enable js, not the other way around. Learn to drive before considering driving without a seatbelt.
    - flatiron 5y ago
      but not displayed. so you right click the bar, click customize, find noscript, drag it to the bar, then go to customize, then go to default, a bunch of confusing options ("why is there a script and a noscript option? if i say no to noscript does that mean script? what is this crap!") which are defaulted to running javascript on the darkweb. that's just silly IMHO

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

Tenoke 5y ago

I can't help but think that the series of extremely big operations by a fair amount of countries, interpol and resources can't be worth catching 230kg of drugs (which includes a lot of weed) spread over 150 sesperate vendors. The crypto $ amount is also misleading as crypto has 10+x'd quite quickly. I wish they'd go after the operations that actually hurt people. Hell, you can walk in plenty of places in Berlin (and it's often German authorities in the lead) and spot much worse dealers than those selling online.

kiba 5y ago
My question is why we keep doing the same thing while expecting something to improve. It's not like law enforcement hadn't heard of criticism against the drug wars before.
- Melting_Harps 5y ago
  > My question is why we keep doing the same thing while expecting something to improve. An existential dilemma: these institutions need to justify their budgets and positions. So, headlines are the currency they trade in and this 'high value' bust results in good PR for their agencies/departments, but still imparts low value to Society over all. It's quite clear their are bigger fish to fry if the goal was to reign in on illicit dealings, be it from the Panama papers to the Paradise papers it's clear that illicit trafficking of funds is done not with Cryptocurrency on the DNM, but rather through traditional institutional banks. But, the selective application of the Law and a tiered justice system ensures that laundering money for cartels is met soley with a fine, whereas charges like hosting a website (SR1/ Ross Ulbricht) can get you 2 life sentences.
Y_Y 5y ago
Drugs are a great way to raise cash for other criminal enterprise, the same way you have to mine ore early on in Red Alert. Maybe they'd argue that they're cutting at the root here? Don't people do weapons and human trafficking on the markets? I think it would be cool if there was more progress made on that front.
- 5y ago

PrinceRichard 5y ago

Another shameful footnote in the war on drugs. Putting what we choose into our own body is a basic human right. Mutually consentual exchanges of goods or services is a basic human right. All victims of these actions are victims of human rights abuses. Part of the global awakening is recognizing this, and rejecting the so-called government's authority to imprison people participating in voluntary exchanges. If we are concerned about the nature of the goods or services being exchanged, we need to remember that our right to impose on others' freedom comes about only when they engage in direct violence.

estaseuropano 5y ago
I'm not a fan of the US war on drugs (which is not really a thing in Europe), but there is a difference between weed and meth. One may ruin your life, one WILL ruin your life. You argue from a point of abstract principles, but miss that there is a reality. Just as there is food safety and certain things are not allowed to be sold because it would be dangerous to you or harmful to the world to eat them, so some drugs also need to be illegal. If you don't believe that go and see any drug addict street, or visit a Brazilian slum where the kids waste away on glue fumes. At societal level high rates of hard drug consumption are unbearable and destroy any healthy community. Opium had two whole wars around it as it was forced into the market by Brits and French and destroyed the fabric of Chinese society with entire generations of men disappearing into (legal) opium dens and spending all their and their families' fortunes while wasting away and letting their children starve. No one wants to be a drug addict and no reasonable person that has a basic understanding of what hard drugs can do can think drugs like that should be legal. Meth, crack and co are a dozen times worse than opium, not to mention krokodil or similar poison that will straight up destroy your organs from first use. Portugal has taken the right route, with drugs still illegal but drug use not anymore criminalised, so they are getting people off the streets and off the drugs. There is no benefit in locking people up for using, as they 99% don't want to use - they just can't find the way out. But that hard drugs themselves need to be illegal and fought is without question.
- Stevvo 5y ago
  Saying Meth will ruin your life is not consistent with the data. Before 1971 you could buy it in any pharmacy without prescription and there was no usage epidemic. The vast majority of people who use Meth today do not get addicted.

LatteLazy 5y ago

What a huge waste of time and resources. And my only drug is caffeine.