At any given moment, in cities across Russia, thousands of packages of the drug lie buried in the ground, magnetized to poles or taped under windowsills, waiting to be picked up by their intended customers.
From the streets of Moscow to the remote cities of Siberia, the direct purchase of illegal drugs, as is common in much of the world, is on the decline. Instead, small packages of drugs are hidden by an "army" of young kladmen (storekeepers), who set up "secret stash" locations, which are unlocked when customers make an online purchase.
"Everybody over the age of 14 in Russia knows about betting shops and secret hideouts," said one Russian lawyer specializing in the drug world. There is even a manual, the "Bible of Gamblers", which teaches couriers how to package and hide drugs while avoiding the police and "seagulls" - specialized thieves who look for drugs in secret hiding places. Bettors are encouraged to take into account Russia's winter weather conditions and cover their footprints in the snow.
However, it goes beyond the hideouts themselves. Behind this new way of buying drugs, according to a report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), are new, technologically savvy criminal groups characterized by self-promotion and violence. Against the backdrop of Russia's strict anti-drug regime and geopolitical isolation, a powerful darknet drug industry has developed. Masked by flashy websites, Hollywood-quality promotional videos and bold PR stunts on the streets of Moscow, it now dominates the trade from production to sales and is taking root outside Russia, from the Ukrainian battlefield to the streets of Tbilisi and Seoul.
At the bottom of that pyramid is a continuous line of poorly paid Russians who, faced with poor prospects and high inflation, are looking for a quick way to earn money. Russian prisons are full of young gamblers, some of whom have been sent to die on the battlefield in Ukraine. Those with bad grades receive punishments from the "executor" - beatings that are published on Telegram.
The main product is mephedrone, a stimulant powder known in Russia as "salt" that was briefly popular in the UK in the late 2000s as a cheap alternative to cocaine and MDMA. One online drug store owner said it was like a "new religion" for young Russians - but the drug's popularity is driven by marketing, not just demand.
For those who profit from this trade, Amazon-like darknet platforms and the thousands of stores that pay to be on them, this is the ideal commodity. It is produced using readily available precursor chemicals from China, which means production can take place close to the market, an important factor if you are supplying illegal drugs to the world's largest country by area, reducing the need for expensive and risky imports of cocaine, MDMA and heroin produced in abroad.
Darknet markets also serve as hubs for sharing precursors, lab equipment, and video tutorials that have created a vast network of amateur chemists making mephedrone across the country.
This is a unique model created by a combination of necessity and country with a relatively developed digital space. The high risk of buying and selling drugs in Russia, both on the streets and through its unreliable, closely monitored postal system, has led to a new system shrouded in a layer of anonymity. In less than a decade, it has become a billion-dollar industry, far more valuable than Western darknet markets.
"It was as if the Russian market was waiting for a contactless method of drug delivery," said a Russian drug expert in the GI-TOC report. "Before this system of secret hiding places appeared, you had to wait for a dealer, sometimes for hours, you were afraid of hooligans who could literally rob you and take drugs, you were visible to the police, because everyone knew where the dealer was. So this system of secret hiding places initially created a sense of security".
This is a model that has spread to parts of Ukraine under Russian occupation, where Russian soldiers use Telegram channels and secret hideouts to buy drugs. A month after the fall of Mariupol, a store called CaifCoin solicited punters in Mariupol, while another called Republic began distributing free samples through secret hideouts in occupied Kherson. Stores operating in the occupied parts of Ukraine offered subscribers about 18.000 rubles (140 euros) to beat unruly couriers.
The spread of the Russian model is most pronounced in neighboring countries, but in June 2023, South Korea's president, Jun Suk Jeol, declared "total war" on online drug sellers using secret hideouts, after hundreds of arrests, and after a 14-year-old girl was found passed out in a public restroom after allegedly using cryptocurrency to buy crystal meth.
Like most drug underworlds, this industry is steeped in brutality. Many online shops employ 'enforcers', known as 'sportsmen', who find and penalize bookies with poor ratings from customers.
The longest-running darknet platform, Hydra, earned $1,7 billion in 2021 from 17 million users. Operating as a monopoly, it was also an international center for money laundering and hacking, until German police found its 55 servers near Frankfurt and shut it down. Four new darknet platforms - Mega, Kraken, OMG! OMG! and Blacksprut - now fighting for not hiding. In March, a bus playing electronic music, with the Kraken logo and a QR code to buy drugs, was used to block one of Moscow's busiest streets. A year before that, a huge electronic billboard promoting Blacksprut showed a woman with a futuristic mask and the message: "Come to me if you're looking for the best."
"Moriarty", the masked leader of the largest darknet marketplace Mega, regularly teases the Russian authorities who have failed to catch the creators of the operation, while he regularly delivers "red pill" style videos to his 2,8 million followers about male power and how to get rich from drug trade.
Like most drug underworlds, this industry is steeped in brutality. Many online stores employ "enforcers", known as "sportsmen", who track down and fine punters with bad reviews from customers who couldn't find their drugs, or those suspected of theft. Poorer couriers are easy to trace because those who could not afford the deposit required for the job must provide an ID card.
These brutal attacks are often filmed and posted on social media, with some Telegram groups posting up to 2.000 videos, with victims forced to beg for forgiveness. People being beaten unconscious is a common sight, while the most extreme footage shows broken or severed fingers, sexual assault and, in at least one case, murder.
"Those who run the Russian drug trade, the big darknet markets, now have sole control over the drug trade and the drugs people are most likely to buy," the report said. "Darknet markets should not be seen only as online markets, but as a criminal ecosystem that shapes the trends of drug use, distribution and production throughout Russia and a growing number of countries bordering Russia."
Translation: A. Š.
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