Posted: September 4th, 2022

History of the Silk Road and the Current Dark Web

History of the Silk Road and the Current Dark Web
introduction
Half a decade ago, the sale of illegal narcotics in a digital black market was the main topic. Silk Road’s untold case is the most impactful and relatable story with the ongoing online drug dealing of our current time. Curtis Green, a twenty-nine-year-old, developed a global drug bazaar, which made him a poplular kingpin (Xin, and Jingjing, 2017). Silk Road’s rise and fall began when Green grew a hidden site in the dark web known as the silk-road. The silk-road consisted of invisible search engines that could not be easily broken into or accessed without special cryptographic software. The popular site was used for drug dealing worldwide, where the trade allowed thousands of drug dealers to trace and communicate with each other.
Millions of customers flooded in the site to purchase various drugs and discover new medicines in the market. In the early twentieth century, technology was overgrowing, and e-commerce had taken over the business industry (Whitfield, 2015). Curtis Green’s wild success was motivated by the internet’s outburst and the growth rate of information technology. According to the story, Green could make more than one billion of sales. Curtis Green was just an employee under the leadership of a mysterious individual known as Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR). Pirate Roberts was the proprietor of Silk Road and worked towards growing the business community. DPR was not challenged by law enforcement because the proprietor believed that the illegal business’s technology was not easily accessible (Xin, and Jingjing, 2017). Various law enforcement department had tried to infiltrate the Silk Road central point. For instance, the secret service team, the FBI, DEA homeland security, and the IRS.
Fortunately, green was caught a day after receiving a priority box consisting of white powder. Just When unboxing the package, the SWAT team invaded the house wearing black masks and riot gears weapons. Green was caught red-handed, all covered in cocaine beside two Chihuahuas. Green was handcuffed and taken away (Whitfield, 2015). The drug dealer was caught with twenty-three dollars in a fanny pack, an open computer with running encrypted chats from clients, and Green had pain medication. According to the law enforcement team, Green was seen for booking one thousand and ninety-two kilograms of cocaine to distribute (Whitfield, 2015). Green was more afraid of Dreaded Pirate Roberts than his own life, through a statement that, “don’t take me to jail, he knows everything about me.”
Assignment help – Discussion
Over the last fifteen years, Drug trafficking has expanded, becoming a threat to security; health, and economic status despite the national security and law enforcement’s effort to counterdrugs. The escalating nature of illicit drug trafficking has been fuelled by technological advancement and the rise of transnational organized crimes (Chertoff, 2017). Globalization and new technologies have enhanced drug trafficking according to the international narcotics control board. Drug trafficking has been a significant source of funds for organized crimes for years now.
Drug traffickers now use the power of networks and the latest technology, such as bitcoin, to sell illegal drugs. The use of darkweb is still a major issue since Silk Road case (Xin, and Jingjing, 2017). Criminals interact and communicate with clients through virtual networks and darknets drug markets. Some of the popular drug networks include the Wall Street market, Alpha Bay, and Hansa market. In 2018, drug users were reported to purchase drugs in Latin America and North American. Apart from heroin, cocaine, and cannabis growth, the diversification of illegal substances in the dark market has been reported.
The use of encrypted chat rooms, broadband radio frequency, satellite telephones, prepaid telephone cards, and cloned telephones has enhanced drug trafficking for a long time now (Kaur, Randhawa, 2020). Drug traffickers use back hacking technology to identify a law enforcement intrusion. In case an intrusion id detected, the drug cartels disrupt and damage the source of investigation. For example, in Australia, drug lords offer electronic equipment to clients meant to track the shipment and any involvement.
The tracking devices enlightens the client and the trafficker in case of police involvement or any delay. Due to the rise of cyber criminality, drug traffickers have modified hacking skills and altered the law enforcement customized database and transport system database, changing the details of commercial freight. Various cartels, such as the popular Columba and Mexican cartels, use special software and sophisticated gadgets to investigate law enforcement. The equipment can detect and capture communication and gather an officer’s personal information and photographs. Hacking encrypted police officers’ communication has been widespread primarily when police officers use similar or standard encryption software.
Since the emergence of bitcoin technology, drug traffickers use bitcoins to pay and fund the illicit drug flow on the dark web (Kaur, and Randhawa, 2020). Bitcoin is considered a technology for computer gigs, where most drug traffickers have invested resources in understanding the computer. The anonymous nature of bitcoin has encouraged drug traffickers to explore the dark web, similar to Silk Road’s case.
Green was a computer gig that trafficked drugs, hacked compuers, created fake documents, and conducted malware attacks (Chertoff, 2017). A famous market, Alpha Bay, earned forty-eight billion from one hundred and forty-four bitcoins. Due to the privacy issues related to bitcoins, criminals now use safer digital currencies in dark webs. For example, Zcash and Monero have been the top-performing cryptocurrencies in the market; wherein 2016, Monero recorded a growth of one-hundred and sixty-five million dollars. Monero is much decentralized and private away from law enforcement control. Drug markets, such as Alpha Bay, now use Monero instead of bitcoins. Monero consists of unique features not present in bitcoins, such as confidential ring transactions that do not expose dealings.
Current state
Drug trafficking conducted through the dark web is being challenged by advanced investigative techniques and the privacy paradox of cryptocurrency technology. The law enforcement is tracking down illegal and illegitimate transactions, especially those conducted through bitcoins in darkwebs. According to reports and speculations, more evidence of Silk Road is still hanging because researchers have found out how to track bitcoin transactions (Xin, and Jingjing, 2017). For years, drug criminals conduct payment through bitcoins to an individual public account on the dark web. Law enforcement can link the available funds to transactions and discover buyers’ identification, such as names and locations.
Additionally, most bitcoin formation is recorded in the block chain where the law uses blockchain to retrieves past information and discover unknown users. The blockchain is considered as bitcoin’s’ record system for transaction records, where one can identify the trafficker receiving money and the sender. The technology has assisted law enforcement in cases where the criminal decides to use intermediary identity or technology and services that hide the payment’s origin and destination.
Qatar researchers conducted the latest research, and found more than a hundred transactions in the dark web sites by intruding into senders anonymity public accounts (Liggett, et, al., 2020). The researchers discovered twenty-two transacting records to Silk Road and forty revealings, age, email addresses, location, and gender. Also, law enforcement currently uses the bitcoin wallet company coin base to identify online drug dealers’ hidden addresses to trace and hunt down anonymous bitcoin users.
According to the Drug enforcement administration, artificial intelligence has been used to reduce drug dealing today. Artificial intelligence has been used to monitor transactions, identify identity through sanction name screening and KYC. The advanced AML program has helped law enforcement identify funnel accounts as the main red flags and drug dealing typologies. Artificial intelligence and machine learning technology have helped track down suspects (Liggett, et, al., 2020).
Artificial intelligence computer vision systems are fed with important information that assists law enforcement track down the delivery of narcotics. The United States law enforcement uses anonymizing technology to track criminals in the dark web, such as Tor. The war to bring down the dark web is still ongoing between China and the United States, where China argues the unclear web benefits the country (Liggett, et, al., 2020). The FBI is also using the protocol address verifier (CIPAV) to track suspects by tracking their location.

Conclusion
Today criminal activities are controlled through the latest technology such as the internet. The use of the dark web and other new technologies has grown, encouraging criminality. Since the case of silk-road, bitcoins in the transaction have become popular in the world of corruption. Drug traffickers use bitcoins and other current cryptocurrency technology, such as Monero. The private nature of Monero has attracted many small and large drug dealing markets, such as the Alpha Bay market.
The government must keep up with the technological pace and develop policies and technical strategies to counter drug trafficking. The dark web has encouraged criminality but encouraged business and political growth, as experienced in china (Kaur, and Randhawa, 2020). The indiscriminating dark web should be managed, where law enforcement should employ methods that unmask drug traffickers and maintain users’ privacy. The government should investigate illegal sites, such as Silk Road, instead of focusing on individual criminals.

References
Chertoff, M. (2017). A public policy perspective of the Dark Web. Journal of Cyber Policy, 2(1), 26-38.
Kaur, S., & Randhawa, S. (2020). Dark Web: A Web of Crimes. Wireless Personal Communications, 1-28.
Liggett, R., Lee, J. R., Roddy, A. L., & Wallin, M. A. (2020). The Dark Web as a Platform for Crime: An Exploration of Illicit Drug, Firearm, CSAM, and Cybercrime Markets. The Palgrave Handbook of International Cybercrime and Cyberdeviance, 91-116.
Whitfield, S. (2015). Life Along the Silk Road. Univ of California Press.
Xin, N., & Jingjing, L. (2017). History of the Silk Road. Chronos, 36, 167-195.

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