Crypto, Drugs, Dark Web: Inside India's Fledgling Marketplaces

The dark web has gone from strength to strength, and India is high on the list of users. According to a Statista survey in 2019, India accounts for 26 per cent of the global population using the dark web, the highest usage worldwide.

Ease of Doing Business

This is what we know of the highly opaque dark web, and how the drug market survives and thrives in India. There's no clarity on the number of people on the dark web in India because of its very nature, which provides complete concealment. As one crypto expert, who wishes to remain anonymous, explains with a laugh: 'Even college students are now using it to get their assignments ghostwritten for a fee. What is clear is that the number has been increasing every year. In the early years, people did not know how to use or access it, but now the browser is publicly available, making downloading easier. And it's free. There's no clarity on the age group that is the most active on these dark websites either. What is clear and apparent is the stuff that's up for sale. Betting, drugs, child pornography and data leakage. The dark web is flooded with Aadhaar details and passwords of unsuspecting Indian citizens. People in India are very lax about their passwords. While the largest bucket of money in India currently is in the betting market, scamsters abound with private and leaked details of many ordinary Indians.'

More and more people are buying their drugs on the dark web than at any other time in recorded history. In the 2021 Global Drug Survey,26 researchers found that in 2020, 15% of survey participants who reported using drugs in the previous twelve months had obtained them from dark web marketplaces-either by purchasing them first-hand or via someone else. There was a three-fold jump in the percentage of such people since 2014, which is when the survey first started measuring the trend.

How does the now flourishing drug market work for a buyer and seller on the dark web?

• Step one: Select a website. Buyers usually pick one with a high reputation for delivering on time.
• Step two: Create an account and username on that website.
• Step three: A wallet address will be given for the purchase plus a time limit. The buyer needs to pay within that time and share a screenshot confirming the payment is done. The moment the payment is okayed, the order will be processed.

 
Two features are key in this process - that there is a middleman, the handler of the website, and that the payment will only be made in crypto. Bitcoin remains the most popular coin for these sales and the drugs available range from purple hash to various types of cocaine, the highest quality of weed, LSD, and MDMA, more commonly known as Ecstasy.

The players in India are among the smartest, frequently changing the names of their sites, ensuring that the actual coordinates of where these lethal substances are is never ever revealed. While very little is known about them, veterans in the field allude to a type. 'Techies', as they are often called - young people with brilliant minds for all things technology, and perhaps a taste for crime.

The Arrest of Dipu Singh

A twenty-one-year-old bachelor in hotel management from Amity University in Lucknow, Dipu Singh's social media pictures show a sharply dressed young man in a suit, with a well-groomed beard and a big smile. The son of a retired Army officer, Dipu looked like he had a bright and exciting future waiting for him. Until he was arrested by the NCB on 31 January 2020.

The NCB describes Dipu Singh as India's first narcotics vendor on the dark web to be caught. He is allegedly the mastermind behind hundreds of drug parcels clandestinely couriered to countries like the US, the UK, and many in Europe, using the dark web and crypto.

It started off under the commonest of garbs-sex pills. Dipu started with shipping medicines related to erectile dysfunction and fitness supplements to overseas locations using the dark web. When he saw the profit margins in psychotropic drugs, his game plan changed. He soon became a major player on the dark web; his listings were found in some of the biggest and reliable dark web markets like Empire Market and Majestic Garden. Orders were procured from the dark web and routed through secure messaging platforms like Wickr and WhatsApp. As his fame grew, so did his markets.

'Operation Trance'

Unbeknownst to him, the International Narcotics Control Board had started an investigation in December 2019 to gather information from officers in different countries about these shipments. The NCB was now part of a global 'Operation Trance' that saw joint intelligence gathering action on international postal, express mail, and courier shipments containing psychotropic drugs that are abused as sedatives and painkillers.

In December 2019 alone, NCB officials from Delhi and Mumbai seized over 55,000 psychotropic tablets worth Rs 45 lakh, from Delhi, Mumbai, and the UK. In early January 2020, customs officials in Delhi seized a package. Its source was traced to Lucknow, and all trails led to Dipu Singh.

His name was listed as an active vendor on Empire Market. He was working under the username 'Mr Robo' and had created fake IDs and tried to purchase a few drugs. Investigations showed payment gateways of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoins and Litecoin were used by the operators to conceal the transactions from regulatory agencies.

Small Fish In A Giant Ocean

Singh's interrogation - as pieced together from news reports and the Narcotics Bureau's own tweets - revealed that he was brought into the drug syndicate in 2018 by a man who operates an online pharmacy, which had offered him a job to deliver medicines online. By early 2019, Singh associated with dark web markets and began supplying psychotropic tablets illegally to clients abroad. At last count, he had sent over 600 consignments of drugs using the dark web and used crypto as his channel for payments.

While investigating authorities assert this is a big win, critics are quick to point out these arrests are small fish in a giant ocean. As Macksofy founder Yasir Shaikh explains, drug cartels and the associated gang warfare that comes with the turf have now moved online. That means attacks are frequently launched against the websites of competitors to take them offline. By selling directly to users, dealers are slashing risk, cutting middlemen, and boosting profit margins. But players like Dipu Singh represent extremely small proportions of a market that is booming globally. So, while small vendors sometimes get caught, the big players keep changing their names, and their cat-and-mouse game with enforcement authorities continues.

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