3,962 Members Joined, Drug Trafficking Specialized Site Also Cracked Down
A drug trafficking crime involving the distribution of marijuana worth approximately 860 million KRW through a ‘dark web’ site, as well as direct cultivation and sales, has been uncovered. The dark web is a hidden network designed to prevent IP tracking, with an estimated 2.5 million daily users worldwide.
On the 26th, the Special Investigation Team for Drug Crimes at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Boseong) announced that a total of 16 individuals have been indicted (12 detained, 4 released on bail) as a result of focused investigations into drug trafficking crimes.
Since October last year, prosecutors have been intensively investigating drug trafficking crimes on the ‘dark web’ for 10 months. They collaborated with the Cyber Investigation Division of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office to track and cross-analyze virtual asset transaction records.
As a result, they uncovered the only domestic specialized dark web drug black market site with 3,962 members across 13 drug sales groups, and tracked and arrested six of these sales groups. The 16 indicted individuals are suspected of supplying, selling, managing, and cultivating marijuana within six dark web seller ID groups. Prosecutors stated that from June 2022 to June this year, the drugs distributed in a total of 759 transactions included 7,763g of marijuana, 208mL of synthetic marijuana, and 98 liquid marijuana cartridges.
Prosecutors also seized drugs worth a total of approximately 1.058 billion KRW that these individuals possessed for sale, including 4.4kg of marijuana, 4,677mL of synthetic marijuana, 38 MDMA pills, 36g of cocaine, and 10g of ketamine.
The prosecutors revealed that the dark web drug sales site operated through six stages: ① The operator opens a specialized drug site on the dark web, mediating between sellers and buyers in an open market format. ② Sellers pay registration fees to the site operator via virtual assets. ③ Buyers place orders after viewing site advertisements and pay for drugs using virtual assets. ④ The operator forwards order and payment details to the drug sellers. ⑤ Sellers provide buyers with information on locations where drugs have been pre-hidden. ⑥ After buyers collect the drugs and the transaction is complete, sellers request settlement from the site operator, who then pays the sellers.
The prosecutors stated, “We will continue to strictly investigate internet drug crimes and, through information sharing with related agencies and blocking access to harmful sites, do our utmost to prevent the public from being exposed to drug crimes.”
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