The nature of the shadow fleet’s aging and poorly maintained vessels makes incidents and accidents far more likely than is the case in regular shipping. Incidents are also made more likely by the fact that the vessels turn off their AIS, which means authorities and other vessels don’t know their location. The fact that the vessels frequently engage in risky ship-to-ship transfers further adds to the risk of incidents. Tanker traffic from Russia via the Baltic Sea gives a good indication of shadow fleet activity (though some tankers departing Russian ports are not dark ships). Here we discuss cryptoasset compliance, blockchain analysis, financial crime, sanctions regulation, and how Elliptic supports our crypto business and financial services customers with solutions. No, black market websites operate illegally and pose high risks of scams, fraud, and law enforcement action.
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It maintains a very strict level of user verification and integration with an official Telegram account to provide real-time updates to users. Various cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Monero can be used to make purchases. Stick to cryptocurrency, avoid downloading anything, and don’t share any personal info.
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According to the Chainanalysis report, four out of five of the highest-earning dark net markets in 2022 were involved in the drug trade. Recent data presented by blockchain intelligence platform TRM Labs reveals that these markets accounted for an alarming 80% of the $1.49 billion worth of illicit drugs purchased in 2022. OFAC reported that, as of early 2023, close to half a million packets of such stolen data from hacked computer systems of victims are now freely available for purchase on Genesis Market. Each packet of data being offered for sale is comprised of stolen passwords and personal or business information related to various email, video streaming and social media accounts belonging to significant U.S. and non-U.S. As one graphic illustration of the dangers presented by Genesis Market, OFAC cited a June 2021 breach of a U.S. company’s computer system by hackers who then were able to steal that company’s software engine and source code using a cookie purchased through Genesis Market.
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They use pseudonymous wallets, privacy coins (like Monero), mixers, chain-hopping, and non-KYC platforms to obscure transaction trails. If you ever decide to explore the dark web, protecting your identity is crucial. Telegram channels supplement traditional onion sites, blurring lines between the dark web sites and more mainstream communication tools. According to the data from Bitfury’s data firm Crystal Blockchain, currently, Hydra’s bitcoin addresses hold more than 521 BTC, worth over $18 million. In August 2022, The New Statesman published an article about how the Russian invasion in Ukraine was “reshaping the dark web” and that “the geopolitical tensions that have changed the world are also changing the dark web” 3. Although this article was published during the first six months of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the perception of geopolitical tensions transcending to the dark web is apparent.
UPDATED: Illuminating Russia’s Shadow Fleet
Given the illicit nature of darknet markets, it’s unsurprising that vendors and users would seek to leave a market that has suffered a data breach. The important question is how the advertisement made it onto the billboard in the first place. It could be a hacked device, or an innocent oversight from the billboard’s operator, but there’s no denying that Russia is a far friendlier place for darknet markets to operate than many countries.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Dark Web Marketplaces
Others are looking for stolen data, hacking services, or even banned books and political content. The migration of vendors, plus the timing and source of OMG’s initial revenue suggests that Hydra administrators may have been involved with the development of OMG. For instance, Hydra was unique from its competitors in that it offered location-based courier services.
But amid the scramble for power and wealth, experts have told VICE World News that the huge profits being generated by these platforms are being fuelled by money from gangs involved in increasingly sinister crimes. The widely-mooted DNM decentralization is unlikely to materialize over the short term. The familiar cycle of DNM launch and growth followed by exit scams, law enforcement action, or voluntary withdrawal is likely to continue in 2023. 1) Russian-language DNM vendors favour the dead-drop delivery model dubbed klad/клад (Russian for “treasure”), as opposed to the international mail delivery model adopted by western DNMs. This restricts the former to the geographic areas covered by the vendors and couriers. These can serve areas ranging from local neighborhoods to entire cities and regions, but most importantly, the vendors’ reach is not international.
- It, however, becomes illegal when you use it for unlawful activities such as buying drugs, weapons, stolen data, or engaging in cybercrime.
- Many online shops employ enforcers, known as “sportsmen”, to find and punish kladmen with bad reviews from buyers who could not find their drugs, or those who are suspected of stealing.
- On the other hand, the dark web is a small subnet of the deep web that requires special software like Tor to access (it’s where most of the anonymous communication and illicit platforms exist).
- Cybersecurity experts should pay close attention to these trends, as they often indicate emerging threats and profit-generating tactics among the cybercriminal forums.
The Dark Web During The Russia-Ukraine War
As Hydra did, many of these markets have continued the tradition of including drug harm reduction information for drug buyers, such as providing drug testing and medical advice. “The RuTor forum has launched a series of webinars on medical topics, including first aid and overdose scenarios,” said Aleksey Lakhov, of St. Petersburg-based drug project Drugmap.ru. They were found guilty of the illegal production and sale of drugs as part of an organized criminal group. The Moscow prosecutor’s office announced the verdict on Monday but did not publicly link it to Hydra. The attribution was made by state-run news agencies TASS and Interfax, which, citing anonymous law enforcement sources, claimed the sentence was delivered to the platform’s alleged founder, Stanislav Moiseyev, and his co-conspirators. Since the late ‘80s, the favorite forbidden stupefiant of Russians had long been heroin, which arrived from Afghanistan via the mountainous, impoverished Central Asian land of Tajikistan, a smuggling route overseen by organized crime and corrupt security chiefs.
- Over the last year, “Alex,” the drug dealer from Moscow, said a new genre of content has been growing on Russian Telegram profiles.
- As long as you’re in the high seas, a country’s EEZ, or the outer edge of its territorial waters, you have the right to ‘innocent passage’.
- As we’ll explore later, the three next-highest earning markets of the year — Mega Darknet Market, Blacksprut Market, and OMG!
- Hydra has been an active darknet marketplace catering to the Russian Tor community since the Silk Road days.
- The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) also sanctioned Hydra Market in April 2022 as part of the coordinated international effort to disrupt the Russian darknet market’s services.
The preference for crypto transactions and blockchain technology within DNMs has further amplified the advantage bestowed upon actors in the illicit drug trade. Loose regulations surrounding cryptocurrency payments make them an ideal tool for masking illegal exchanges. There are a number of Russian-specific forums and bulletin boards across the Darknet.
The Malaysian taxpayer also faces footing the bill for the removal of the oil leaked by the Pablo; fortunately the vessel only carried a small amount of crude as she had just made a delivery. Although the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPC Funds) provide financial compensation for oil tanker spills in its member states, it’s not yet clear whether it will compensate coastal states for spills by shadow tankers. Apart from the dark web markets that are operating online today, some raided platforms influenced many markets. We don’t yet have confirmation of OMG offering money laundering services, but again, the on-chain data suggests it likely does.
If global efforts against Russian-language DNMs are combined, their impact would send shockwaves through the online illicit drug trade market. Both MEGA and Hydra hidden services emphasize trusted vendor-buyer relationships before the market will facilitate the crypto-transaction and goods exchange. For example, on Hydra, before an order from the buyer is processed, the vendor and buyer must communicate and trust each other.
3) Most Russian-language DNMs only support Bitcoin, with no privacy coin options available. This also appears to reflect their lower perceived risk of being taken down by the authorities. This failure to cope lies partly with the changing nature of the drug market itself. A new report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, for which I acted as a researcher, explores this new underworld, which may give us a clue for where the worldwide drug scene is headed next.
Research Report
Before German police seized Hydra Market’s servers in a joint action with the United States in April 2022, effectively taking down the entire operation, Hydra Market was the world’s largest darknet market for selling drugs and money laundering. Hydra Market, which was considered to be the world’s largest and oldest darknet marketplace of illegal items and services, was seized and shut down by German authorities in coordination with U.S. law enforcement Tuesday, the U.S. Hydra has been an active darknet marketplace catering to the Russian Tor community since the Silk Road days. It resurfaced with a new Tor URL in the summer of 2016, less two years after law enforcement claimed it had arrested and charged the 26 year old market admin and Hungarian resident in November 2014 as part of Operation Onymous. Hydra is a centralized marketplace featuring many individual vendor-shops similar to RAMP with offerings including drugs, digital goods, and even mobile phone SIM cards. TRM Labs calculated that in the eight months since Hydra had been shut down, the new cluster of darknet markets had amassed $820 million in crypto currency deposits.
There was a big increase in crude oil prices after the war began, with a peak in May 2023 (this correlates to the peak shown in this graph). The shadow/dark fleet was popularly estimated to number around 600 vessels earlier in the war, with mysterious ownership designed to obscure their transport of sanctioned Russian oil/wet cargo since the start of the Russian war. A Russian court sentenced a crime boss described by state media as the founder of dismantled darknet drug marketplace Hydra to life in prison on organized crime and drug charges.
