Police allege the intended recipient of the drugs was a Greenfield Park resident, 23. The first consignment contained 133 tablets of MDMA, 100 tablets of oxycodone, and 97 tablets of an analogue of nitazene, a synthetic opioid that can be more potent than fentanyl. The second and third consignments contained a total of 60g of MDMA, 25g of ketamine, 15g of meth and 14g of heroin.
Illicit Drugs Easily Bought On The Dark Web Sent Via The Post To Users Across Australia
Consumers who purchase drugs from the Dark net typically report access to higher quality drugs than those available offline. “Cryptomarkets allow anonymous buyers to review purchases, which theoretically means vendors who sell inferior products are more likely to receive bad reviews, thereby rewarding vendors selling superior products,” said Barratt, from RMIT’s Social Equity Research Centre. The main drug sold online is cannabis, followed by synthetic drugs, cocaine and, to a lesser extent, opioids. Synthetic drugs show a higher proportion of sales on the darknet and in online shops than other drugs, while cannabis and cocaine are more likely to be obtained through social media, largely because of their partial legality and social acceptability. Heroin and other opioids do not have a significant presence online, as their sale is highly regulated and controlled.
Highest Adulteration In Cocaine
- A declaration by a court that a person is a drug trafficker can have serious lifelong consequences as well as allowing the state to seize and sell the individual’s property as proceeds of crime.
- These sites cater to cybercriminals seeking valuable data, such as credit card numbers, login credentials, and personal information.
- Coauthor Dr. Monica Barratt, a senior research fellow at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, said that this potential mismatch between expectation and reality is what motivated the team to conduct the research.
- Overall though, it does appear that utilising cryptomarket data such as that used here can shine a light on market activity that would otherwise be hard to pin down empirically.
- Established in 2022, WizardShop is one of the biggest data stores on the dark web, focusing mainly on carding and financial data.
- Dark web markets have exploded in scale and reach in 2025, becoming the most dangerous hubs for trading drugs, stolen data, and hacking tools.
Still, it seems ever-evolving technology may be pushing people past the use of the dark web. According to the 2023 National Ecstasy and Related Drugs Reporting System survey, there was a slight decline of people buying drugs on the dark web, with more people turning to messaging and social media apps to source drugs. “The results really reinforce the importance of sustained efforts by law enforcement agencies to combat the sale of opioids and other drugs online.” Globally, police seized over 41 million USD in cash and cryptocurrencies, 45 firearms, and 234 kilograms of drugs. The arrest of 150 vendors and buyers largely occurred in the US, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Bulgaria, France, Germany, and Italy. These products are often sold at a discounted price as compared to other markets such as Silk Road or AlphaBay.
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- Police say the 38-year-old received cryptocurrency in exchange for prohibited drugs on thousands of occasions since 2017.
- “Since their inception, dark web markets have continued to evolve and they present unique problems to law enforcement agencies,” Professor Broadhurst said.
- That was disputed by the prosecutor, who said that at the time of the offending, Chikarovski had two Porsche Cayennes, about $40,000 (AU$60,000) in private school fees, and a $1.4 million (AU$2.2 million) mortgage.
- More than six years after the demise of Silk Road, the world’s first major drug cryptomarket, the dark web is still home to a thriving trade in illicit drugs.
- The United States leads the world in the cryptomarket-share of drugs being sold on the dark web, followed by the UK and Australia.
- In 2024, darknet marketplaces generated over US$1.7 billion in cryptocurrency-enabled drug transactions, marking year-on-year growth of over 20%.
“They are highly toxic drugs, similar to fentanyl, but which have never been approved for human consumption and they have huge risk of overdose,” he said. Detective Superintendent Adam Rice said the synthetic opioid “nitazene” was among the drugs allegedly seized, something which was “particularly of concern”. Police will allege the 25-year-old man from the Adelaide Hills was operating several vendor profiles on the dark web selling a variety of drugs.
A Lethal Dose For $1 – Fentanyl’s Risk On The ‘Darknet’
That line of thinking is mirrored in the United States, for the most part, when it comes to the establishment of safe injection sites, where drug users are provided sterile equipment and supervision to help prevent overdoses. While 65% of samples contained only the advertised substance, 14% had a mixture of the advertised substance with other psychoactive or potentially harmful chemicals. Strangulation Offences (NSW) All Australian states and territories now have legislation that makes non-fatal strangulation a standalone offence.
India, China and Canada have been carried forward in this work for theoretical reasons rather than their market size, and all three paint an interesting picture that suggests they are at least source countries, particularly of sedatives. At the beginning of the study period sedatives in India accounted for almost a quarter of all sales, and India, China and Canada all saw this part of their market grow over the time period, at just over 6% per year. This strongly suggests that there is an amount of specialisation in these products from vendors in these countries.
Young, White, Daily Opioid Users More Likely To Prefer Fentanyl
Worryingly, marketplaces also had fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that’s 50 to 100-times stronger than morphine, and and carfentanil, an incredibly potent synthetic painkiller, itself 100 times the strength of fentanyl. One of the largest Australian sellers on a major marketplace, who primarily deals ketamine, cocaine and amphetamines, has more than 1000 positive recent reviews and claims to have been active on other website, including several that are now defunct. The United States leads the world in the cryptomarket-share of drugs being sold on the dark web, followed by the UK and Australia. Indictable Offences in South Australia How courts deal with criminal offences depends on whether they are summary offences or indictable offences.
Top Dark Web Marketplaces Of 2025: A Deeper Dive Into Illicit Trade Markets
A review of dark web marketplaces yielded hundreds of results for Australian-based operators that sell a variety of illicit substances almost exclusively to locals. As a criminal market, it is deeply intertwined with a wide range of criminal activities, including cyber-dependent and financial crimes. As these illicit economies continue to flourish, tackling and dismantling the criminal networks involved will require more than technological advancements. The issue calls for international cooperation, policy adjustments and a deeper understanding of the constantly evolving cyber landscape. The Australian darknet research is a study that was conducted by the Australian Crime Commission. It also looked at the links between darknet markets and illicit substances, as well as other illegal activities.
Chikarovski’s defense said that he turned to using illicit drugs to cope with a childhood marked by dysfunction and the pressure of living in the public eye. Prosecution documents reportedly showed Chikarovski sold drugs to undercover police across 18 different transactions between February and May 2023. Globally, while growing, the dark web drugs market paled in comparison to the traditional trade, which is worth “trillions and trillions of dollars” compared to the “several hundred million” online, Ms Ormsby said.
Top 7 Dark Web Marketplaces
Quality and validity of the data it provides justify its higher cost over other marketplaces. The platform’s popularity continues to grow, attracting both new and returning customers. Valued at approximately $15 million, Abacus Market is one of the most lucrative platforms in the dark web ecosystem. In 2024, the platform grew significantly in popularity, partly because of its strategic acquisition of users from a number of recently shut-down marketplaces, such as AlphaBay and Incognito Market, which had recently closed their doors.
Agora soon followed suite when it disappeared, with the claim that it had to fix security flaws. ABF alerted the AFP, and on 19 May, 2023, the AFP executed a warrant at the Greenfield Park address where the packages were allegedly supposed to be destined. The AFP seized a number of items, including kitchen scales and spoons with white residue, zip lock bags, and a fake ID card.
New Wastewater Tech Tackles Fatbergs At The Source
Users who buy drugs from overseas run the risk of their packages being intercepted by Australian Border Force at mail processing centres. Increasingly, sophisticated detection techniques are being employed in a bid to slow the flow of imports. And one dealer who trades exclusively in crystal meth promised the “best service possible” and product “direct from the top of the chain”, with 350 positive reviews this month. And experts say business is booming, with Aussie users making up the largest cohort per capita of dark web drug buyers in the world. This analysis is part of the GI-TOC’s series of articles delving into the results of the Global Organized Crime Index. The series explores the Index’s findings and their effects on policymaking, anti-organized crime measures and analyses from a thematic or regional perspective.
