Bitcoin and drugs are known to go well together. While there is some truth to it, the media has portrayed digital currency as the preferred currency for buying and selling illegal drugs, contraband and weapons. But again the definition of “Illegal Drugs” vary from place to place.
The law enforcement authorities in A Coruna province recently arrested a man who was selling drugs over the internet in the region. According to the police, the perpetrator used to place online advertisements for weight loss medication, which is illegal in the country. These advertisements attracted the attention of law enforcement agencies whose investigation into the advertisements led to the perpetrator’s detention.
When the police turned up at his place, they also more than what the advertisement announced. He was found to be also in possession of depressants, narcotics and drugs for the treatment of erectile dysfunction and other disorders, most of which are illegal too.
According to media reports, the person was ordering illegal medicines from abroad by ordering them on the deep web, paying for it in bitcoin. He was then selling it to the people in the region by placing advertisements on the internet. To make it hard for the law enforcement authorities to find, he is said to have used more than 10 different email accounts to place online advertisements.
The investigating authorities from the Central Brigade of Technological Research Group, part of the General Judicial Police analyzed large amounts of information regarding the advertisements and emails used to place these ads before identifying the suspect. The suspect was later arrested in a joint operation by the General Judicial Police and the Judicial Police of Santiago de Compostela.
Among the things recovered from the suspect were drugs that were ready for distribution, documents related to the drugs, user lists, postal stamps and more.
This is not the first time people have tried to resell drugs procured from the deep web. There have been numerous cases like this across various geographies. However, it is worth to be noted that the purchase of illegal drugs using bitcoin forms a small percentage of the total drug sales, a majority of such transactions still happen with fiat currency.
Ref: ABC.es | Image: Shutterstock