Law Enforcement Shuts Down Websites Selling Illegal Drugs

Posted by azdrugrehabctr on November 15, 2014 under AZ Drug Rehab News | Comments are off for this article

Federal law enforcement took action against hundreds of websites participating in activities ranging from selling illegal goods and services, including dozens of “dark market” websites selling illegally selling drugs. According to the United States Department of Justice, the website addresses and computer servers hosting these websites was seized early this week as a part of an international law enforcement collaboration.

Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell stated that criminals are using advanced technology to commit and conceal evidence of their illegal activity. “The global law enforcement community has innovated and collaborated to disrupt these ‘dark market’ websites, no matter how sophisticated or far-flung they have become,” Caldwell said.

“Dark market” websites are designed to work through anonymity of both the seller and the buyer. The sites are only accessible through the Tor anonymizing network, and payments to the sites for illicit goods and services are made via anonymous virtual currency like bitcoin.

The operation involved the seizure of more than 400 Tor website addresses (.onion addresses) and the servers hosting them. Examples of the websites seized during the operation are “Pandora” (pandora3uym4z42b.onion), “Blue Sky” (blueskyplzv4fsti.onion), “Hydra” (hydrampvvnunildl.onion) and “Cloud Nine” (xvqrvtnn4pbcnxwt.onion). These sites are similar to Silk Road 2.0. They offered illicit goods and services ranging from illegal drug sales, selling medications without prescriptions, counterfeit money and fake identification documents.

The investigation into these “dark markets’ is an ongoing effort between federal, state and international law enforcement agencies.

Associate Director Peter Edge of Homeland Security Investigations said that underground websites like Silk Road and Silk Road 2.0 are like the Wild West of the internet. “We will continue to use all of our resources and work closely with our U.S. and international law enforcement partners to shut down these hidden black market sites,” Edge said. He also said he wants to hold criminals responsible for using anonymous internet software to conduct illegal activities.