FBI boasts of dark-web drug bust: 179 collared around the world, $6.5m in cash and 500kg of narcotics seized

A nine-month international operation spearheaded by the FBI has led to the arrest of 179 people across the world for selling drugs on the dark web. Operation DisrupTor, announced on Tuesday, also resulted in the seizure of $6.5m (£5.1m) in cash and cryptocurrency as well as a 500kg haul of illegal drugs and 63 guns. Most of …

[Chris G]

Not even a drop in the ocean

According to google, 2003 saw a worldwide trade of illegal dugs valued at $321.6 billionb, the money recovered on this operation amounts to a tiny percentage.

Looking at the list of organisations involved and the time taken, I would imagine the cost was significantly higher.

Perhaps not protecting Afghan opium fields from the Taliban would be a start, when the Taliban controlled the opium growing areas, production fell to a fraction of the current levels.

Also the production of opioids and the willy nilly prescribing of them,with doctors on a bonus from the makers would help too.

I recently read an article that one company was bringing out a opioid for children, WTF!

Legalising a lot of drugs would reduce the value to criminals, be easier to regulate the sales and track usrrs.

[stiine]

Re: Not even a drop in the ocean

I agree. Someone should ask them how much they spent on this and related operations.

[AW-S]

Re: Not even a drop in the ocean

BBC Radio 4 news was all excited about this yesterday, but their response to the report earlier this week on leading banks (e.g. HSBC) and their dirty practices, much less so.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Not even a drop in the ocean

That's because Panorama got the gig which fact got splashed all over bbc.co.uk/news. The Beeb is enough to be its own competition.

[c1ue]

Re: Not even a drop in the ocean

Quite idiotic.

The purpose of law enforcement is ... enforcing laws.

It isn't about cost efficiency, nor is the cost to do something the only or even primary criteria.

Laws without enforcement are a waste of time.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Legalising a lot of drugs would reduce the value to criminals"

No, criminals will simply have a legal market to make money from while controlling it with criminal tactics to maximize profits, which is far more difficult to block, just like it happens with gambling - while more people will have an access to drugs that will hamper their health and make them dangerous to others.

Just look at the legal opioids sold in the US - and how they reduced people.

Illegal drugs will still be sold - using the legal market to hide them more easily.

[Cynic_999]

Re: "Legalising a lot of drugs would reduce the value to criminals"

ISTM that we already know what happens in a Western society when you (a) prohibit a recreational drug and (b) when you subsequently remove that prohibition. Because it happened in the US with alcohol. So there is really no need to speculate or guess.

Prohibiting a popular commodity leads to the rise of organised crime, and the consequent rise in other crimes and gang violence. It also results in people consuming unsafe toxic substances (e.g. methanol) sold as being the less harmful variety.

Removing the prohibition results in regulation and taxation of the substance which generally becomes cheaper for the end-user, so that the government gets more funding and organised crime less funding. Some degree of control is also possible, and the substance manufactured according to established standards to prevent inadvertant overdosing and poisoning. People can also be made aware of how to use the substance safely in moderation to avoid addiction rather than just being told not to use it at all, and help openly provided for addiction. Information promulgated about the substance tends to be based more on fact and less on hype and scaremongering.

[c1ue]

Re: "Legalising a lot of drugs would reduce the value to criminals"

Thank you for your recreational drug promo.

Legalizing marijuana has not dropped the price; the legal stuff is a lot more expensive than the illegal stuff.

Nor has it reduced usage - illegal marijuana is still 80% of the market.

Reality is that legalization generates revenue for states. Period end stop.

[Cynic_999]

Re: "Legalising a lot of drugs would reduce the value to criminals"

Legalising alcohol maybe didn't reduce its price all that much, but it still created a far better situation to the prohibition era. I'm no fan of governments, but better they get the profits than organised crime.

[Chris G]

Re: "Legalising a lot of drugs would reduce the value to criminals"

The wholesale manufacture if opioids and their overprescription is a significant part of the problem.

There are direct correlations between oxycontin and it's cousins and opioid abuse in the US, psychotropic doses are said to be a better high than heroin but US doctors are encouraged bu manufacturers to prescribe these drugs.

If anything is a gateway drug to normal members of the population, oxycontin is a good placr to look. Along with the other names, fentanyl, oxycodone etc. Enough seems to be produced apparently legally to fuel a huge level of abuse, how does that hsppen?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "Legalising a lot of drugs would reduce the value to criminals"

"Overprescribing" used to be a significant problem here in the US, but that was primarily due to hospitals pressuring and/or punishing physicians for low pain control "satisfaction scores" from disgruntled patients, which can lead to punishment for the physician. Unfortunately, we have persons here who complain if they don't get 100% pain relief post-operatively or post-injury. Also, they believe that MUST have opioids/opiates for their ENTIRE recovery period, which tcan lead to dependence on to addiction. Unreasonable and unrealistic expectations. Usually, 3 to 4 days on prescription pain drugs, then switch to non-prescription pain drugs. Rarely, it can be longer on the prescriptions, but that's usually for major operations or injuries, especially musculoskeletal involvement.

Regarding the supposed "opioid crisis", it is very, very misleading. The government combined legal prescription, illegally obtained prescription drugs, and illegal drugs for their statistics on drug abuse, overdoses, and fatal overdoses. Most of these problems are directly attributable to illegally obtained prescription, and illegal drugs. Diversion of prescription opiates, opioids, and other scheduled drugs are a huge problem, as well as the abuse of illegal / illegally obtained drugs.

The ONLY thing that has resulted is massive problems for the majority good, ethical practioners, and chronic pain patients. Many decent physicians have been harassed, and run out of their practises for doing nothing worse than giving good, proper care for their patients. As well as the severe inconvenience, inability to find treatment for their pain, massive suffering, and increased suicides of chronic pain sufferers, of whom the majority have never abused drugs or anything questionable regarding their medication treatment regime. All because our legal system, and knee-jerk reactions by our lawmakers. Drug abusers are treated better, and with more compassion than are legitimate pain sufferers. I am intimately involved, as a chronic pain sufferer and patient for the past 17 years.

[c1ue]

Re: Not even a drop in the ocean

I was more or less agreeing with the OP until "legalizing drugs" nonsense came out.

Really? Legalizing fentanyl is a good idea?

[Danny 2]

TOR ≠ Dark Web

My daftie relatives spotted the TOR browser on my parents laptop, and exclaimed, "Granny is on the Dark Web!"

Not the same thing. I put it there so they could view embarrassing things without their ISP knowing, like pornography or the Daily Mail website. So far the police haven't raided them.

(I just learned that US white supremacists are trying to abuse the 'not equal' sign. Not my intent. Who put stupid pills in US reservoirs?)

[Peter Galbavy]

A lot of effort when you canjust let the idiots delivery themselves like they do down under: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-49079926

[Danny 2]

Hiya Peter,

That is funny, and the guy obviously is an idiot. Crashing his van full of drugs into a police car and then not emptying it.

OTOH, there was a local service called "Dial A Drink" where you could phone up to get booze at inflated prices. Initially I thought that was a sign of societal decline but I realised it was probably keeping a lot of drunk drivers off the road. I have no idea what methamphetamine does to folk, but I'd prefer they did it in their own homes.

[Wade Burchette]

Unfinished sentence

"Operation DisrupTor will 'significantly disrupt the online opioid trade ... for about 2 minutes'"

The sad fact is several new drug marketplaces on TOR are probably already being set up.

[Jellied Eel]

Gigglepixel cameras

Not sure if it was from this operation, but I've seen a neat LEO trick. Dealer posted images holding his merch for his ads. LEOs did the zoom & enhance thing to capture their fingerprints from the hi-res images, identified and arrested them.

[chivo243]

Low hanging fruit?

I get the feeling these are the least tech savvy crims on the web, and probably had their own Roedecker or Smoking Gun guys who pushed the buttons and hacked out the code...

[Tempest]

Drugs: Seems to Me to be a Matter of Culture

I live in Indochina, an area well know for it's drug production of marijuana and poppies (the source of opium as well as heroin, morphine and codeine). In fact it is openly cultivated in some areas.

It is very common to see older folk pulling on a 'joint' that would put a prize-sized cigar to shame in North-East VietNam, where marijuana is openly grown and openly smoked yet the only people indulging to excess are Foreigners visiting this beautiful country. In our cities there are drugs but we lack the hordes of police chasing down street vendors as in Western countries.

The only police activity here is in limiting cross-border smuggling of man-made drugs such as speed, ecstasy, etc.

The resources that the USA, and the UK, spend on enforcing arcane drug laws is staggering and could well be used elsewhere. If the US DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) were to be disbanded little would change other than the number of unemployed would increase substantially.

Fortunately some US States have and enlightened view of marijuana and concentrate on 'chemical' drugs.

As with prostitution, the elimination of drugs is an impossible task.

[Anonymous Coward]

Just to note

"law enforcement has the tools, resources, and inclination"

The tools and resources do not include surveillance backdoors, just police work, and inclination was to crack down on criminals, not dissidents.