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ABSTRACT
The distribution or consumption of traditional drugs has become the subject of stringent penalties throughout most of the world and synthetic designer drugs have become the alternative. Novel psychoactive substances, also called ‘legal highs’, are highly varied in terms of chemical composition. These substances are advertised and distributed as an alternative to traditional drugs on the Internet, making identification of new substances and enforcement difficult. For this article, we downloaded and analysed 28 Russian-language online drug marketplaces which distribute traditional and novel psychoactive substances. All marketplaces used a noncontact drug dealing method where the seller and the buyer communicate through the Internet to arrange for payment and delivery of drugs without meeting face-to-face. Geographic information, price, amount, substance type and payment method data were extracted. Findings indicate such marketplaces are able to operate due to the ability of their clients to pay anonymously with the virtual currencies – Qiwi and Bitcoin.
Notes
1. Lavorgna, “Internet-mediated drug trafficking”; and Van Hout and Bingham, “Responsible vendors.”
2. FATF, Guidance for a Risk-Based Approach; and FATF, Financial flows linked.
3. Anapolskaya, “Characterizing Typical Methods and Traces”; Donika, “Noncontact Method of Drug Distribution”; Kondratiev and Znikin, “Operational Investigative Characteristics of Crimes”; Osipenko and Minenko, “Detective Counteraction to Illegal Drug”; Puptseva, “Problematic Issues of Detecting Crimes”; and Ryasov, “The Issues of Illegal Sale of Drugs.”
4. Anapolskaya, “Characterizing Typical Methods and Traces”; Donika, “Noncontact Method of Drug Distribution”; FATF, “Financial flows linked”; and Korchagin, Chirkov and Litvinenko, “Synthetic Drugs in Russia.”
5. FATF, “Financial flows linked”; FATF, Guidance for a Risk-Based Approach; Dolliver, “Evaluating drug trafficking”; Lavorgna, “Internet-mediated drug trafficking”; and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2015.
6. FATF, “Financial flows linked.”
7. FATF, Guidance for a Risk-Based Approach; Jacques and Allen, “Drug Market Violence”; and Mena and Hobbs, “Narcophobia: Drugs Prohibition.”
8. Bewley-Taylor, “The American Crusade”; and Crick, “Drugs as an Existential Threat.”
9. Benavie, Drugs: America’s Holy War; Bewley-Taylor, “The American Crusade”; Buchanan, “Ending Drug Prohibition with a Hangover?”; Crick, “Drugs as an existential threat”; Mena and Hobbs, “Narcophobia: drugs prohibition”; and Wodak, “Drug prohibition.”
10. Buchanan, “Ending Drug Prohibition”; Crick, “Drugs as an Existential Threat”; Månsson and Ekendahl, “Protecting Prohibition”; and Mena and Hobbs, “Narcophobia: drugs prohibition.”
11. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2015.
12. Buchanan, “Ending Drug Prohibition”; Perrone, Helgesen and Fischer, “United States drug prohibition.”
13. Donika, “Noncontact Method of Drug Distribution”; Griffiths et al., “How Globalization and Market Innovation Challenge”; Meyers et al., “The availability and depiction of Synthetic Cathinones”; Perrone, Helgesen and Fischer, “United States Drug Prohibition and Legal Highs”; and Rolles and Kushlick, “Prohibition is a Key Driver.”
14. See note 11 above.
15. Griffiths et al., “How globalization and market innovation challenge”; and Klein, “Khat, and the Informal Globalization,” 179–202.
16. Curtis et al., “Using Web searches to track”; Griffiths et al., “How Globalization and Market Innovation Challenge”; Perrone, Helgesen and Fischer, “United States Drug Prohibition and Legal Highs”; and Rolles and Kushlick, “Prohibition is a Key Driver.”
17. Griffiths et al., “How Globalization and Market Innovation Challenge”; Rolles and Kushlick, “Prohibition is a Key Driver.”
18. Curtis et al., “Using Web Searches to Track”; Griffiths et. al., “How Globalization and Market Innovation Challenge”; Meyers et al., “The Availability and Depiction of Synthetic Cathinones”; and Rolles and Kushlick, “Prohibition is a Key Driver.”
19. Griffiths et al, “How Globalization and Market Innovation Challenge.”
20. Griffiths et al., “How Globalization and Market Innovation Challenge”; Meyers et al., “The Availability and Depiction of Synthetic Cathinones”; Perrone, Helgesen and Fischer, “United States Drug Prohibition and Legal Highs” and Phelps and Watt, “I Shop Online – Recreationally!”
21. Rolles and Kushlick, “Prohibition is a Key Driver”; and Weisburd et al., “Does Crime Just Move?”
22. Barratt, Ferris and Winstock, “Use of Silk Road”; Broséus et al., “Studying Illicit Drug Trafficking”; Dolliver, “Evaluating Drug Trafficking”; Phelps and Watt, “I Shop Online – Recreationally!”; and Van Hout and Bingham, “Responsible Vendors.”
23. Broséus et al, “Studying Illicit Drug Trafficking”; Dolliver, “Evaluating Drug Trafficking”; Phelps and Watt, “I Shop Online – Recreationally!”; and Van Hout and Bingham, “Responsible Vendors, Intelligent Consumers.”
24. Barratt, Ferris and Winstock, “Use of Silk Road.”
25. Van Hout and Bingham, “Responsible Vendors.”
26. Broséus et al., “Studying Illicit Drug Trafficking”; Van Buskirk et al., “The Closure of the Silk Road”; and Van Hout and Bingham, “Responsible Vendors, Intelligent Consumers.”
27. Dolliver, “Evaluating Drug Trafficking”; Van Buskirk et al., “The Closure of the Silk Road.”
28. Van Buskirk et al., “The Closure of the Silk Road.”
29. Lavorgna, “Internet-Mediated Drug Trafficking.”
30. Barratt, Ferris and Winstock, “Use of Silk Road”; Broséus et al., “Studying Illicit Drug Trafficking”; Phelps and Watt, “I Shop Online – Recreationally!”; and Van Hout and Bingham, “Responsible Vendors.”
31. Meyers et al., “The Availability and Depiction of Synthetic Cathinones.”
32. See note 31 above.
33. Ibid.
34. See note 29 above.
35. See note 6 above.
36. Ibid.
37. Van Hout and Bingham, “Responsible Vendors”; Van Hout and Bingham, “Surfing the Silk Road”; Phelps and Watt, “I Shop Online – Recreationally!”
38. Korchagin, Chirkov and Litvinenko, “Synthetic Drugs in Russia.”
39. Korchagin, Chirkov and Litvinenko, “Synthetic Drugs in Russia”; and Sementsova and Fomenko, “Internet Environment as a Method of Trafficking in Illegal Drugs.”
40. See note 6 above.
41. Dolliver, “Evaluating Drug Trafficking”; Phelps and Watt, “I Shop Online – Recreationally”; Osipenko and Minenko, “Detective Counteraction to Illegal Drug”; Sementsova and Fomenko, “Internet Environment as a Method of Trafficking in Illegal Drugs.”
42. Osipenko and Minenko, “Detective Counteraction to Illegal Drug Trafficking”; Puptseva, “Problematic Issues of Detecting Crimes”; and Ryasov, “The Issues of Illegal Sale of Drugs.”
43. Anapolskaya, “Characterizing Typical Methods and Traces”; Donika, “Noncontact Method of Drug Distribution”; Kondratiev and Znikin, “Operational Investigative Characteristics of Crimes”; Osipenko and Minenko, “Detective Counteraction to Illegal Drug”; Ryasov, “The Issues of Illegal Sale of Drugs”; and Sementsova and Fomenko, “Internet Environment as a Method of Trafficking in Illegal Drugs.”
44. Kondratiev and Znikin, “Operational Investigative Characteristics”; Malakhov and Kochakov, “Evaluating Results of Investigational Activities”; Osipenko and Minenko, “Detective Counteraction to Illegal Drug Trafficking:; and Ryasov, “The Issues of Illegal Sale of Drugs.”
45. Korchagin, Chirkov and Litvinenko, “Synthetic Drugs in Russia”; Antsyborov and Mrykhin, “Synthetic cannabinoids”; and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2015.
46. Artyushina and Usmanova, “The Object of Illegal Trafficking”; and Stepuschenko et al., “Designer drugs and problems.”
47. Permyakov, “Problems of qualifying trafficking.”
48. Abramov, Kosolapova and Mikhaiylova, “The Actual Russian Legislation.”
49. Kryzhanovskaya, “Interaction Investigators and Officers”; Vasilyev, “Modern features of interpretation.”
50. Vasilyev, “Modern features of interpretation.”
51. Kolycheva, “Certain aspects of preserving.”
52. Potapov, “Perfecting investigative techniques.”
53. See note 52 above.
54. Macdonald et al., “Identifying Digital Threats.”
55. Iklad.biz, “Automated Sales Service.”
56. Broséus et al., “Studying Illicit Drug Trafficking.”
57. See note 24 above.
58. Dolliver, “Evaluating Drug Trafficking.”
59. Barratt, Ferris and Winstock, “Use of Silk Road”; Broséus et al., “Studying Illicit DrugTrafficking”; Dolliver, “Evaluating Drug Trafficking”; Van Hout and Bingham, “ResponsibleVendors”; and Lavorgna, “Internet-Mediated Drug Trafficking.”
60. Qiwi, “Qiwi Digital Payment System.”
61. See note 60 above.
62. “Liberty Reserve Founder Pleads Guilty”; and Zagaris, “U.S. Attorney in New York IndictsDigital Currency Company.”
63. See note 60 above.
64. See note 6 above.
65. “Federal law, 7 August 2001 N115-FZ.”
66. See note 60 above.
67. Osipenko and Minenko, “Detective Counteraction to Illegal Drug Trafficking by Telecommunication Devices”; Puptseva, “Problematic Issues of Detecting Crimes”; Ryasov, “The Issues of Illegal Sale of Drugs.”
68. Hutchings and Holt, “The Online Stolen Data Market.”
69. See note 68 above.
70. See note 60 above.
71. Decary-Hetu, Paquet-Clouston and Aldridge, “Going international?”
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Alexander Mikhaylov
Alexander Mikhaylov is a BA graduate from the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University. His research interests include cybercrime, fraud and financial crime, as well as law and public policy.
Richard Frank
Dr Richard Frank is Assistant Professor in the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University (SFU), Canada and Associate Director of the International CyberCrime Research Centre (ICCRC). He is also Associate Editor-in-Chief of Security Informatics. His main research interest is Cybercrime. Specifically, he is interested in hackers and security issues, such as online terrorism and warfare.