Dark Web and Transnational Organised Crime

Introduction

Globalisation has become an opportunity for those trying to gain an advantage in illegal trading. This enables crime and empowers illegal organisations to exchange organisational expertise and, in certain instances, to cooperate with criminals and other militant armed groups. The vast volume of licit trade enables illegal commodity trafficking to create insurmountable challenges for state entities trying to track them down (Shelley, 2014). Deviant globalisation is the easiest approach to understand and support how illegal drugs cross boundaries and capture territory across the dark web. In fact, transnational crime groups have made use of developments in information technologies, logistics and even the dark web to extend their capacity to smuggle greater quantities of illicit narcotics, rendering it increasingly challenging for law enforcement to track and stop such operations. One of the most common types of transnational criminal activity is the illicit transport of psychoactive drugs, mandated through three instruments of international law known as drug control conventions, through one or more national frontiers. This is usually referred to as "trafficking in illegal drugs." Although the transnational dimension remains the exception rather than the rule for most types of crime, drug trafficking has had a critical transnational element from the very beginning of the international drug control system in the early 20th century.

The structure of this paper is as follows, the first section outlines drugs. The second section presents dark web. The third section is divided into three parts the first part identifies disrupting financial threat networks and how this is utilised by the government. The second part discuss the contested role of the global drug regime.

Finally, the third part explains Combating the flow of Drugs in Transit States as a measure against the proliferation of transnational organised crimes. This essay argues that the above-mentioned approaches to curb transnational organised crime is inadequate which explains the diversifying methods utilised by criminals to further evolve their businesses. Consequently, the concept of global drug regime is debated and contested.

DRUGS

Narcotics have long been one of the most lucrative illegal industries and attempts by policymakers to curb both production and demand are posing continuing challenges. Illicit drug trafficking is often seen as the most lucrative activity. This high profitability is largely attributed to the nature of drug use; unlike firearms, gems or even human beings, drugs are constantly consumed and therefore in need of continuous supply renewal. In fact, between one-third and one-fifth of all transnational organised crime revenues were estimated in 2014 was related to drugs. Deviant Globalisation is a trend that cannot be isolated from the wider phase of globalisation. The theory of Deviant Globalisation by Nils Gilman and Steven Weber supports and elucidates the market's demand for products and services that are illegal or deemed to be repugnant in one country by the use of resources from certain areas of the world where values are different and law enforcement is not efficient, which is why this trend facilitates the dissemination of counterfeit drugs on the dark web.

Illicit drugs have been trafficked from "producers" to "consumer countries" for almost a century, generally involving several criminal groups from countries along the chain of trafficking. The drug trade is, of course, more than a century old, but there was no distinction between legal and illegal drugs before the 20th century, and consequently no such thing as drug trafficking. Although the above-mentioned distinction between producer and consumer countries has been blurred in recent decades, there is no question that drug trafficking continues to exist and has gained substantial importance over the last three decades.

The drug trade threatens domestic security and compels governments to invest more money on defence. Drugs threaten public safety and commerce and question the capacity of a nation to utilise substantial capital to promote their development. There have been numerous attempts to epistemologically locate this dynamic social, cultural, and technological problem. This essay claims that Constructivism, as a methodological conceptual framework, coupled with securitisation theory, promote a necessary and sufficient interpretation of illegal substances on the internet for criminal purposes, especially in relation to the selling of narcotics the underlying point being that the former methodology approach accounts for the context in which research and technology is securitised. Hence, technology is posing a threat to our security.

Securitisation is underpinned by constructivism. This sociological interpretation views securitisation from a constructivist viewpoint, arguing that the theory of securitisation is one example of constructivism’s great potential in examining the use of dark web to sell drugs. Constructivism like securitisation claim that ideas, not power or institutions, but ideas are the major driver of international politics, hence the act of securitising drugs. The securitisation theory in international relations should be viewed as a tool to understand how and why the debate around 'drugs as an existential threat' has so much influence, even now. Speech acts such as the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the UN Convention Against Illicit Trade in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and Russia's 'Rainbow-2 Program' explicitly reflect the growth of the public dialogue on 'Drugs as an Existential threat' in special regard to society, the State and world peace and stability. Buzan, Waever and de Wilde, collectively known as the Copenhagen School, argue that security is a specific type of politics that applies to a wide range of issues. And it provides a constructivist way of working to differentiate the securitisation cycle from that of politicisation for knowing who should securitise what and under what circumstances.

Examination of such speech acts further reveals that the strength of the security narrative ensures that the global drug prohibition system maintains its pre-eminence despite unforeseen repercussions it causes. This essay investigates the link between narco-trafficking and theory of securitisation will provide fresh ideas to influence updated approached to curb transnational crime and suggest new policies.

DARK WEB

Our social and economic stability is severely endangered by Transnational Organised Crime. Originally named the "Onion Router" or "Tor" the dark network was created by the US Naval Science Laboratory. It started in 2003 as a project that enabled secret agents, political spies and the judiciary to interact anonymously and safely from all countries. But the initial conception of how the dark internet was meant to function was altered. Instead of being a place where security and political information is shared, it has now become a cyber sanctuary for robbers, terrorists, pedophiles, smugglers, fraudsters, killers, dealers and many other kinds of offenders. Illicit networks influence our globalised western environment. From human trafficking in Eastern Europe to cocaine smuggling in East Asia, to the illegal weapons trade in Africa, to militant groups in East Asia and rebels in the Caucasus, transnational criminal networks have branches that penetrate globally. Trafficking of illicit drugs is probably the most significant, of a growing concern and is the focus of this essay.

The Internet is an essential aspect of the drug trade. It serves as a facilitator, offering another platform for sales and transactions, and as a forum for the exchange of information among users. Consumers from around the globe can access all legal and illicit products online. Crypto-markets are anonymous marketplaces that are part of the Dark Web and dedicated exclusively to trading illicit drugs. To facilitate the production of the illegal drug trade, they combine resources to ensure the privacy of participants. Crypto-markets are defined as a type of website that uses advanced encryption to protect users’ anonymity and has been launched by entrepreneurs for several years to enhance the security of virtual illegal markets. They are part of the Dark Web (a small part of the Deep Web) and offer a wide range of illegal products, predominantly illegal drugs, shipped by post. Like famous marketplaces like eBay or Amazon, they share similar fundamental characteristics, like searchable lists of items for sale and customers being able to give reviews on their transactions. These online exchanges use the nearly untraceable cryptocurrency bitcoin, the Onion Router (TOR) software, and the encryption of private messages, directories, and e-mails utilising the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) crypto-system to guarantee the confidentiality of both managers and users. New technologies and the delivery of products by post also greatly decreased the capacity of law enforcement authorities to track and identify them. In addition, these tools combined with an escrow system have changed the structure and organisation of illicit drug trafficking considerably. This phenomenon is described as a revolt in cocaine dealing and a criminal evolution. Both demand reduction and surface web-based supply mitigation strategies have gathered momentum.

Transnational crime organisations have adopted modern techniques of market identification. Cyberspace is also a core domain for TOC: it allows essential aspects of illegal activities, such as messaging and financial transfers, to be carried out at low cost. In addition, the growing technological existence of certain transnational criminal groups has generated significant overlaps and synergies between legal and illegal activities: the same systems that foster legal foreign commercial transactions are used for criminal purposes. Consequently, it is extremely difficult for policymakers to recognise, track, and undermine the operations of transnational crime organisations. The foundation of transnational criminal organisations has changed. Projecting the trends of globalisation, centralised criminal groups have, in many cases, relented to propagated networks of criminal agents. They have become loose, opaque, highly versatile networks that are interconnected and they accentuate ad hoc partnerships determined by opportune moment rather than by command hierarchies. These attributes have made transnational criminal organisations more resilient and efficient than government entities commissioned to weaken or eradicate them.

However, the dark net has created fresh resources and obstacles for healthcare practitioners and law enforcement. Although some observers say that this virtualisation of drug distribution, with platforms offering user advice and feedback on sellers and their goods, can minimise drug abuse, violence and intimidation (Barratt et al., 2013; Aldridge and Décary-Hétu, 2014; Van Hout and Bingham, 2014), the intensity at which the Internet is changing the opioid industry poses a huge problem for law enforcement authorities. Over the surface network, both demand mitigation and supply mitigation initiatives have gathered momentum (EMCDDA, 2013; Interpol, 2015). Several studies cited in this essay indicate that Silk Road could have helped consumers reduce the damage done by illegal drug usage, particularly when compared to street drug marketplaces. Examples involve marketing of high-quality products with low risk, distributing trip notes, and online discussion of harm prevention activities (Barratt et al., 2013; Van Hout and Bingham, 2013, 2014). Nevertheless, crypto markets continue to proliferate despite scams and law enforcement efforts. Independent analyst Gwern Branwen, who has reported and analyzed these markets on a comprehensive basis, finds that 43 new markets opened in 2014 and 46 markets closed. Much of such closures, he reports, is attributed to internet or online hacks, fraud, with just six closures credited to the law enforcement. For the existing markets, nine expanded during 2014 (Branwen, 2015). Soska and Christin (2015) found these markets to be extraordinarily resilient, with 'take-downs' by law enforcement resulting primarily in seller displacements to other markets. To sum up, crypto markets appear to have a relatively brief life, so their lifespan is reduced more by hacks than by crackdowns by law enforcement.

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