Tech-savvy organised crime groups profiting from billion-dollar enterprise that is spreading beyond Russian borders
, thousands of drug packages lie buried in the ground, attached by magnets to lamp-posts or taped underneath window sills, waiting to be picked up by their intended customers.
, are a new breed of tech-savvy organised crime groups characterised by self-promotion and violence. Against the backdrop of Russia’s strict anti-drug regime and geopolitical isolation, a powerful darknet drug industry has developed.
For those profiting from this trade – the Amazon-style darknet platforms and the thousands of shops that pay to be on them – it is the ideal commodity. It is manufactured using readily available precursor chemicals from China, meaning production can occur close to market, an important factor if you are supplying illegal drugs in the world’s largest country by area, putting less onus on the expensive, risky importation of foreign-produced cocaine, MDMA and heroin.
It is a model that has spread to Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, where Russian soldiers use Telegram channels and dead drops to buy drugs. A month after the fall of Mariupol, a shop called CaifCoin was searching forin Mariupol and another called Republic started giving out free samples via dead drops in occupied Kherson. Shops operating in occupied parts of Ukraine offered subscribers about 18,000 rubles to beat up errant couriers.
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