Dark Web Drug Markets Dented by Police Raids: Report
The Australian National University (ANU) has found that police raids on the dark web marketplaces have dented the supply of opioids, like fentanyl being sold illegally online.
The report (pdf), commissioned by the Australian Institute of Criminology’s (AIC) Serious and Organised Crime Research Laboratory, examined how law enforcement seizures and the subsequent black market closures affected the availability of opioids on the darknet. The darknet refers to a specifically used network for a criminal purpose and can only be accessed through specific software like Tor or Freenet.
“We found evidence that shutdowns resulting from transnational police operations dispersed and displaced markets, vendors and buyers, and it also reduced the availability of these drugs and their prices on the markets,” Lead Researcher Emeritus Professor Roderic Broadhurst said.
The powers given to two law enforcement bodies within three new computer warrants need further work, representatives from the Human Rights Law Centre and the Law Council of Australia say.
The Illicit Tobacco Taskforce (ITTF), a multi-agency Taskforce led by the Australian Border Force (ABF), has undertaken a two-day blitz disrupting three.
Illicit tobacco crops worth more than $84m seized in raids near Murray River
MonMonday 8
MarMarch 2021 at 3:06am
A tobacco crop found in a raid on a south-west New South Wales property being destroyed.
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Authorities say illicit tobacco crops seized and destroyed in raids on properties near the Murray River this month are among the biggest busts of their kind in Australia.
Key points:
Authorities estimate the tobacco seized was worth $84.3 million
Each year, illicit tobacco takes $822 million out of Australia s tax coffers
Officers from the multi-agency Illicit Tobacco Taskforce uncovered more than 40 hectares of the plant growing on properties either side of the Victoria-New South Wales border, near the regional centre of Swan Hill.