In a joint report published on Tuesday 28 November, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and Europol note new upward trends in the sales of drugs online on the parallel Internet network (or darknet) and issue recommendations to tackle this phenomenon proactively.
“In just a few clicks, buyers can purchase almost any type of drug on the darknet, whether synthetic drugs, cannabis, cocaine, heroin or a range of new psychoactive substances, including highly potent fentanyls”, said EMCDDA Director Alexis Goodsdeel in a press release.
Despite a number of practical difficulties in obtaining data on the subject, the report considers that around two thirds of all items offered for sale on the darknet are drugs-related. According to figures put forward for the period 2011-2015, European suppliers are responsible for around 46% of all sales of drugs in the world, worth around €80 million.
Over two periods studied (2011-2015 and 2015-2017), Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were the main supplier countries of drugs on these networks, the report states. Stimulants are some of the most frequently sold products on these markets, whilst new psychoactive substances are still much less frequently sold.
The report stresses the dynamic nature of these online markets, in particular their capacity to evolve to counter threats and exploit new opportunities, calling for a reinforced monitoring capacity in the member states. It also stresses that the member states often lack experts with both a technical understanding of investigations into cyber-crime and expertise in criminal activities related to drugs.
In order to step up the fight against this phenomenon, the two agencies recommend setting in place a “multi-agency approach”, in cooperation with the industry, to better target the new markets to which activities of this kind may move. They also recommend prioritising large-scale enquiries, in order to identify existing synergies between matters of health and safety in this area.
“Existing legislation should be reviewed and, if necessary, adapted to provide more harmonised legal environment”, they write. The report is available at: http://bit.ly/2Bx6sqg. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)