Drugs On Darkweb No More A Secret, Police Seize Rs 90 Lakh Worth Drugs Paid In Bitcoins

New Delhi: With back to back arrest of drugs operatives active on dark web, Indian security agencies have proved that they have got technical skills to crack once impossible to find hidden crime world on the darknet.

Bengaluru Police Central Crime Branch (CCB) has arrested 10 people and claims to have busted widespread network of drugs operative who were buying banned substance from foreign clients via dark web.

Police claim different banned narcotic substance worth Rs 90 lakh was seized by them. Drug dealers in India were paying their suppliers abroad in cryptocurrency or Bitcoins.

Special drive conducted by CCB against drugs procured through DARKNET using BITCOINS..10 accused arrested..LSD, MDMA, Cocaine, Ecstacy drugs worth 90 lakhs seized.. @BSBommai @CPBlr pic.twitter.com/KZBqHRl2Uu

— Sandeep Patil IPS (@ips_patil) November 2, 2020

A senior police officer said these criminals were active on various darknet forums like Empire Market, Silk road market, Drug Board and other underground websites. They used to interact with their suppliers in foreign countries mostly Europe through these underground websites on the darknet. All the payment and transactions were done through cryptocurrencies like bitcoins.

It is using TOR browsers allows internet access to what is known as the dark web – web pages that don’t show up through normal browsers and search engines.

This world of internet has no rules where everyone operated with a code name and deals in cryptocurrency or bitcoins, which made tough for security agencies to crack such cases.

Explaining the supply chain, police said that criminals got their parcel gift packed through international courier and India post.  These peddlers were supplying drugs mostly to college students.

The arrest has exposed that dealers are now aggressively using hidden websites. On the dark web there are ­thousands of deals on offer.

“At any given time, every illegal drug and pharmaceutical is on sale, available for delivery anywhere in the world. These webpages are only accessible through the TOR browser, which gives access to the deep web, the vast unindexed section of the Internet that’s home to legal and illegal web listings,” said a senior police officer.

Bengaluru Police said that those arrested have been identified as Sarthak Arya (31), a resident of HSR layout, Nitin (24), a resident of Vijayanagar, Karthik Gowda (24), a resident of JP Nagar, Ruman Humzamina (25), a resident of Halasuru, Mohammed Tuzari (25), a resident of HBR Layout, Amal Byju (20) a native of Changanassery in Kerala, Phoenix D’souza (24) native of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, Shon Shazi, a resident of Marathahalli, Palaguda Venkata Varun (33), a resident of Indiranagar and Sanni O Innocenta (26) a Nigerian national residing in Benniganahalli in Bengaluru.

The CCB seized 660 LSD papers, 560 MDMA pills, 12 gm MDMA crystals, 10 gm cocaine, 12 mobile phones, 3 laptops and 2 two-wheelers during the raid. However, the CCB maintained that the accused were each operating on their own capacity and were not part of any gang.

Earlier in July this year, Central Crime Branch (CCB) sleuths arrested four drug peddlers, including an MBA student, and seized drugs worth over Rs 1.3 crore from them.

Before this Delhi’s NCB arrested the country’s first ‘darknet’ narcotics operative who allegedly shipped hundreds of psychotropic drug parcels abroad in the garb of sex stimulation medicines.