A West Midlands Police officer patrols the German Christmas Market in Birmingham, central England, December 9, 2014. A new study into deep web marketplaces for illegal drugs reveals some of the ways that law enforcement use to catch online drug dealers. The study , which was published by RAND Europe , was created with the help of law enforcement workers from around the world. It sheds light on some of the methods they use to catch people who buy or sell drugs online. Here are some of them: Physical observation Sometimes nothing beats good, old-fashioned police work. Once the police suspect someone of dealing drugs, monitoring their movements in the real world can show what they do online. "Physical observation and undercover operations, exploit the weak links in the chain where the digital and offline worlds meet," the study says. One law enforcement worker even refers to physical observation as "the ‘Achilles’ heel’ of vendors." When police arrested the original Silk Road founder, Ross Ulbricht, in 2013, they were able to tie his real identity to his online career from watching where he went in the real world. He left his apartment and walked to nearby coffee shops or libraries to use public Wi-Fi networks, and that coincided with the administrator of The Silk Road coming online. A photo of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht who sentenced to life in prison May 29, 2015. Screenshot Getting data from other websites Drug dealers don’t just use the deep web to sell their product securely — they also surface on the public internet to talk about their trade. That makes them much more vulnerable. Deep web sites are unlikely to turn over user data to police, but mainstream sites are usually legally required to. One high-profile example of law enforcement using […]
