DARKNET WEAPONS MARKET
When one browses the digital storefronts of the online markets of the dark web, one gets the feeling that with a handful of bitcoins and a few clicks of the mouse, it’s trifling to buy an AK-47 or a Bushmaster M4 deployed by the Special Forces in Afghanistan which has an intrinsic potential to fire 700 to 900 bullets per minute. The dark web gun trade is Delphic. Towards one end of the spectrum, there are swindlers waiting to scam and some law enforcement agents masquerading as arms dealers. On the other extreme, there are several genuine instances of people buying and selling weapons on the dark web, counting in the weapons used in the 2016 Munich attack.
On the darknet, lethal weapons are accessible anytime from anywhere to anybody. Anyone can purchase whatever weapon one wants on the dark web sites such as Armory, LiberaTor, Black Market Reloaded. To get them on the dark web, nobody needs any background checks and there is no waiting period. In most countries, as the sale of weapons is either banned or regulated, the sellers of firearms in the darknet take advantage of this situation. The dark web is making possible worldwide arms trafficking. Although the value and volume of firearms traded on the dark web is minuscule when compared to other products such as drugs, but its impact on the security scenario is immense as shown by lone wolf terrorist attacks in Europe.
Darknet classifies weapons, such as pistols, long-range guns, ammunition, explosives, hard weapons and others. Under ammunition, one can find listed bullets of all sizes and shapes. Rand Corporation Europe, a non-profit organisation working with Manchester University, found 52 unique vendors selling weapons or analogous products such as ammunition, explosives, or components such as silencers across 811 listings and 18 markets.
Berlusconi market offers a wide variety of weapons for buyers to choose. They ship most of them worldwide, while they sell some locally. Some Darknet markets, like Dream Market sell firearm guides but no weapons. The Darknet markets require the buyers to register themselves for getting full access to items available with the vendors.
Hand guns such as Glocks, Berettas and 9mm Pistols are readily available on the Darknet. So are assault rifles such as AK 47s and Bushmaster M4s. For those interested in explosives, C4 is in stock. Even military grade weaponry is available online on the dark web these days. A seller on the dark web going by the name Bohica promises access to MANPADS (Man portable air defense systems), APCs, and Helos.
A vendor such as Veronique has ammunition stock, priced between €20 to €80 on the higher side for a piece. In the long-range guns category, Goblin-King sells Russian-made Saiga MK (7.62×39) at around €3,000, which is equivalent to 0.436207 Bitcoins. The seller offers the service with full escrow protection, where the customers don’t have to pay unless it fully satisfies them with the genuineness of the gun. One can also find grenades, chemicals and explosives under the explosives category. In the dark web, there is a seller by name hitman 007 offering M2 pineapple hand grenades.
A variety of hand weapons such as swords, knives, and Taser’s are also found sold by multiple sellers. A vendor by the name DutchDrugz has on sale a 7,000 KVolt Taser at €35, equivalent to 0.005098 Bitcoins. Pistols because of their small size and ease of shipping it worldwide, and its high demand is well stocked item with most firearm vendors. A vendor by name Alexandria has catalogued a Glock 26 pistol at 1,257. €12, which is equivalent to 0.183,687 Bitcoins.
Shipping from the vendors’ location to the buyers address is by far the most challenging procedure in the entire process of buying or owning a weapon. Shipping is a problem as they cannot be just couriered through Postal Service or by FedEx because postal service, which was the most adopted procedure of shipping a gun, today is being monitored by most law enforcement agencies.
The products are therefore being shipped by shielded packaging disguised to look like legal products. The weapons are now being shipped by concealing them inside legal goods like electronics, books and clothes to escape detection by the authorities. The illegal weapons are also being disassembled and sent in different packages at different times. Recently, some items were discovered by the authorities embedded in old stereos and printers.
Weapon merchants are also arranging for “dead drops” where assembled weapons are being buried in a park, or an alley, or in a barren ground in a remote location. After the buyers pay, they receive the GPS coordinates and description of items they will bury under the soil. Researchers in a study found that firearms and related goods had generated 136 sales per month with monthly revenue of $80,000. After the buyer receives the weapon and inspects it for quality, the customers can complete the payment by securing in the markets escrow.
Often, terrorists and criminals conduct illegal businesses under the shroud of anonymity afforded by the dark web, from the security of their homes, with no prior links to suppliers. Data reveals that most weapons available on the dark web (60%) come from the US, but Europe serves as the largest market for dark web firearms. Overall, the dark web is making available more new and powerful firearms for the same, or cheaper, cost than would be available on the street or the black market.
However, there has been no reliable direct evidence of a direct link between the dark web online weapons market and terrorism. In November 2015, a week after the attacks in Paris, there were unconfirmed reports that the terrorists had bought four assault weapons used in the attack from the Darknet from a man in Germany who had been running an illegal firearm online selling business. The information available from the official documents at the prosecutor’s office in Stuttgart, Germany, pointed to purchase of the weapons used in the November 2015 Paris attacks from the Darknet to a German supplier going by the username ‘DW Guns’. In another case, Ali David Sonboly a teenage attacker of Iranian origin who appears to have got inspiration from Anders Breivik’s 2011 Extreme right-wing terror attacks in Oslo, Norway, was discovered to have purchased his weapons on the Darknet with which he shot and killed nine people in Munich, Germany, on 22 July 2016.
In September 2017, the authorities in the UK disclosed that Umair Khan from Birmingham, had bought ammunition categorised as antiquated from the Darknet and adapted them into functioning illegal weapons, which he sold to criminal gangs. Investigations also revealed that between August 2014 and February 2017, Khan had spent an estimated £50,000 buying over 50 revolvers and over 1,600 rounds of ammunition. They later found two 16-year-old boys had received his weapons. It further turned out that Khan was an armourer for organised crime groups and had ‘no idea how and where the weapons were being used’.
The ability of not just criminals and terrorists to make anonymous purchases, but also the capability of vulnerable and obsessed individuals to procure weapons is perhaps the most dangerous aspect. Anyone can connect to the dark web and within minutes have access to a multitude of vendors selling weapons, which are most often illegal. The dark web is facilitating illegal trade of weapons on a global scale, by dismantling the geographical barriers between vendors and buyers and decreasing the personal risk of both buyers and sellers by obscuring their identities through anonymising features of the darknet.
The darknet requires a specific web browser to access called Tor so that users can remain faceless. Tor browser doesn’t provide complete safety and full anonymity for criminals to stay safe. Hence, outlaws run NordVPN software and select Onion over VPN Server to start Tor Browser and disable javascript. They also make sure all other working programs are closed on the computer. Once they perform the above activities, they are ready to explore the dark web anonymously. Not all the items being sold in the darknet are illegal, but the assurance of anonymity makes it easier to subvert the law. The anonymity offered by the darknet also makes buying and selling items on the darknet risky because there is always the risk of the person at the other end being a scammer or the police.
Governments have been slow to realise the potential of cryptocurrency for its misuse of terrorism on the darknet. Bitcoin has become the prominent currency of the ‘dark web’ to purchase illegal goods online, such as weapons and drugs. The crossroads of the dark web and Bitcoin, popularised by organised crime, perhaps poses the most significant threat. Much like organised criminals, terrorist organisations could use Bitcoin to purchase a range of weaponry, including firearms or bomb-making materials, on the dark web.
To prevent the dark web from having disastrous consequences, governments and law enforcement agencies will have to adopt intervention strategies and put in place proper regulatory frameworks. The dark web does not generate weapons; It acts as a facilitator for the trafficking of firearms and ammunition in the offline world. Hence, conventional policing and investigative techniques with traditional guns control measures structured to curb illegal trafficking will be crucial in responding to this threat. To generate a more robust understanding of the role of the dark web in enabling arms trafficking, there is a requirement to implement more continuous monitoring systems which would involve repeating and refining the data collection, to generate data that can analyse trends. It’s further imperative that we review existing international instruments for its effectiveness to bring new amendments or to create new instruments. There is also an urgent need to test the strength and enforceability of present-day national and international counter-arms trafficking systems, including policies, laws, regulations, actors and resources.
Source from: epaper/deccanchronicle/chennai/dt:06.05.2019
Dr.K. Jayanth Murali is an IPS Officer belonging to 1991 batch. He is borne on Tamil Nadu cadre. He lives with his family in Chennai, India. He is currently serving the Government of Tamil Nadu as Additional Director General of Police, DVAC
Dec 3, 2021 at 7:13 AM /
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