Report: Underground Website Used for Black Market Drug Sales Bigger Than The Original

slimvictor

slimvictor

Bluelight Crew
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"Darkness cannot be dissipated with more darkness.
In September, the FBI arrested the man alleged to be running Silk Road, an underground website known as a hidden online haven for drug trafficking, and a federal judge shut down the site with a prominent notice declaring “this hidden site has been seized.”

The man who allegedly ran the site under the pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts is in jail awaiting trial on a raft of federal drug trafficking and money laundering charges.

But Silk Road is not only back up and running – a new version is more vibrant than ever, according to a report published today (PDF) by the Digital Citizens Alliance, a coalition of consumers, businesses, and Internet experts focused on educating the public and policymakers about online threats.

“The online black market economy has done a complete somersault in the six months since the fall of the original Silk Road,” the watchdog group has found. “New players have arisen, including a second incarnation of ‘Dread Pirate Roberts’ and a revived Silk Road (which seems to be thriving, even after law enforcement arrested and charged some of the new site’s prominent figures) has replaced the original.”

Among the findings in the report are approximately 13,648 listings for drugs are now available on Silk Road compared to the 13,000 that were listed shortly before the FBI arrested alleged mastermind Ross Ulbricht and shut down the original site. And Silk Road and other “darknet” marketplaces continue to do steady business.

cont at
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/silk-...s/story?id=23528712&google_editors_picks=true
 
Oh gee wiz, who ever didn't see this eventually happening? I believe my metaphor was something along the lines of, "cut off the head and two will grow in its place." Just as so many others on here correctly predicted that removing OxyContin from the market would soon cause a significant increase in the number of heroin users, which it sure as hell did. Perhaps more bureaucrats should be listening to what the present or former (long term and chronic) users of such recreational substances would have to say about these "quick-fix solutions" for a very complex issue. But who am I kidding, the only thing around here with a voice (other than myself) who hears my rants regarding the aforementioned shit would happen to be fucking Siri, and "she" is apparently not interested =D
 
^ Yes, I think that we here at BL could easily see this happening, but the mass public is deluded into thinking that drugs are only a temporary blip in history, used by a few criminals...

SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:
People, drugs are an integral part of the history of humans. People from all cultures and all time periods use and have used drugs.
Many, many kinds of drugs. And lots of em.
This is unlikely to change suddenly. The war on drugs didn't change it.
So, please expect many, many people in this world we share to use drugs repeatedly until the end of time.
Drugs can feel good, and relieve stress, and take away pain. The are useful to people, and so we use them.
/ End of service announcement
 
^^ For the record, my comment was not directed at you slimvictor, but rather, the people who are entrusted by their constituents to make the right choices about such issues. Unfortunately, it appears the correct choice or direction is rarely pursued. Thanks for sharing this article.
 
So there are concerned digital citizens out there worried people might buy drug online? Who are these people? I am going to look into this digital citizens alliance, I don't believe it is some grass roots group, I bet its funded by groups who profit from the drug war.

"13,648 listings for drugs are now available on Silk Road compared to the 13,000 that were listed shortly before the FBI arrested alleged mastermind Ross Ulbricht"

Okay I will challenge that. I could make a fake site tomorrow and have 14 000 thousand fake listings, does that make my site the biggest? How does the number of listings mean anything?
 
I was under the impression that sr II was grounded. I will say that agora seems pretty good. I use direct email xommecs rather than doing the whole vitcoon thing....buuuut I will say being able to buy a half gram of pure alp powder is temp9ting lol. Some of the stuff on there just looks pretty sketch. Kicking myself (like everyone else) that ibdisnt buy bit coins when they were super cheap. I could have made a small fortune
..ah well.
 
'medicine cabinet' said:
I was under the impression that sr II was grounded. I will say that agora seems pretty good. I use direct email xommecs rather than doing the whole vitcoon thing....buuuut I will say being able to buy a half gram of pure alp powder is temp9ting lol. Some of the stuff on there just looks pretty sketch. Kicking myself (like everyone else) that ibdisnt buy bit coins when they were super cheap. I could have made a small fortune
..ah well.
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Agora never loads anymore for me. I thought they had been closed down, are they still going or changed link or what?
 
Never got anything from silk road, seemed too sketchy 2 me..wouldve bought some opium if they had it, but probably did not..plus how do you get 648 more drugs outta nowhere? did not know there was even 13,000 drugs/chems total..hmm sounds like some bullshit 2 me..dunno though how many actual drugs there are that actually get you high.
 
13,000 drugs/chems total..hmm sounds like some bullshit 2 me..dunno though how many actual drugs there are that actually get you high.
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13k+ individual lots of drugs, not 13,000+ unique drugs...
 
DavisK4high247 said:
Never got anything from silk road, seemed too sketchy 2 me..wouldve bought some opium if they had it, but probably did not..plus how do you get 648 more drugs outta nowhere? did not know there was even 13,000 drugs/chems total..hmm sounds like some bullshit 2 me..dunno though how many actual drugs there are that actually get you high.
Click to expand...

They most certainly had opium.


Also, vendors will often put up multiple listings for the same item in different amounts... so, in reality this means nothing. I highly doubt more people are using the SR compared to the old days, there just isn't the same trust as before. I know I haven't bought anything since the fall of the old one, and will all the scams and "lost" money... I'm staying away for good.
 
i'll clarify how the Silk Road and similar sites work, since it seems there is some confusion.

The person or people running the site are not the ones selling the drugs. Think of it like e-bay, the site provides a place for people to advertise their product and securely communicate with buyers. These sites cannot be accessed with a normal web browser like chrome or firefox, as they are not secure enough, but I won't go into any more detail because of BLs rules against providing sources.

Buyers would review their dealings with the sellers giving a sense of trust, sellers would build up a reputation. If someone had hundreds of positive reviews you could be pretty damn sure you would get what you wanted.

Another advantage of these sites is that they make payment less risky (in theory at least) by using an escrow system, meaning the site holds your money and only gives it to the seller when you confirm that they have shipped it to you.

The 13,000 number, as sekio noted is the number of listings, so there might be hundreds of people each with multiple listings for different strains of weed in different amounts, dozens or hundreds of sellers with various RCs or pharmaceuticals in different amounts/dosages.

I haven't used these sites for a long time since I'm currently in treatment and have a good amount of clean time, but I have heard rumors that the new Silk Road has had some problems, either with hacking or scamming or both, so I don't know how reliable it is, but the old SR and BMR were very very reliable and I never once got anything but excellent products and sometimes more than I ordered, or a free sample of something thrown in (Though there definitely were scammers, a little research and common sense made falling for them unlikely). Over all, in my experience the quality of product from reputable sellers on the old SR and BMR was far better than average street drugs.

I hope this clears things up for those who haven't used any sites like this, and let me know if you have any questions I haven't explained.
 
Silkroad has been robbed a couple of times, but for now they appear to be honourable. Those that lost money in the thefts have mostly been repaid from the commissions of new transactions, rather than the staff taking their cut. It may well be a trust building exercise - who knows.

It's still a risky business for anyone partaking in illegal activities, it's strange that risk can be minimised and trust can be stronger with strangers though.

Another advantage of these sites is that they make payment less risky (in theory at least) by using an escrow system, meaning the site holds your money and only gives it to the seller when you confirm that they have shipped it to you.
Click to expand...

I believe escrow is gone, centralised storage of vast amounts of money was only ever going to lead to security problems. Transferring bitcoins also leaves a publicly visible trail, it's important to know what steps one can take to distort or disrupt this.

Tor is not faultless, and has a few potentially severe weaknesses, with the potential to capture and trace data. I liken this risk to being accidentally being caught on CCTV whilst selling drugs however.

TOR - its concept, its use and its history is interesting - It's an incredibly valuable tool in some heavily restricted countries (I'm pertaining more to the right of free communication, rather than illicit chemicals).

I also find it intriguing that there are "legal vendors" on these networks, who still sell within the confines of the laws that govern them.
 
If you're gonna bother with Tor, I'd suggest also bothering with PGP, as well as an appropriate linux distro contained within an encrypted file system on a small, removable drive, and used on a separate computer from the one that you'd normally use for the usual things.

Ideally, the linux distro should be configured to zero the RAM in the computer which is used for Tor once you are finished your session and wish to shut down.
 
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