These sites often look basic or outdated, and their URLs are lengthy strings of random letters and numbers. Keep in mind that visiting the dark web isn’t illegal, but engaging in criminal activity there is. The buyers, or “consumers,” are cybercriminals who use these tools to launch illegal activities. The victims, who are common users, businesses, and even banks, who end up paying the price. Just like on the regular internet, phishing is a big problem on the dark web as well.
In 2010, cultivation continued to be concentrated in Afghanistan’s south and west, with 93 percent of the crop confined to just five provinces. An increasingly large portion of Afghanistan’s raw opium crop is processed into heroin and morphine base by drug labs inside Afghanistan, reducing its bulk by a factor of 10 to 1, and thereby facilitating its movement to markets in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East through Iran, Pakistan, and Central Asia. In Afghanistan, there is a symbiotic relationship between narco-traffickers and the insurgency, as narcotics traffickers provide revenue and arms to the insurgency, while insurgents provide protection to growers and traffickers to prevent the government from interfering with their activities. Further, drug-related corruption continues to undercut international reconstruction efforts and good governance, as government officials abuse their positions by benefiting financially from the drug trade. The private use and possession of heroin is illegal in most countries of the world, although the drug may be used as a painkiller for terminal cancer patients and others who suffer severe pain. Most illegally distributed heroin comes from opium produced in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Mexico.
Other NIDA Sites
Drivers who transport heroin into and through the EU are in high demand among criminal networks. Turkish criminal networks tend to recruit and use drivers with similar ethnic backgrounds. The common language and connections that these drivers have in countries along trafficking routes facilitates the transit of heroin consignments. Along with Turkish suspects, Iranian nationals are also frequently reported as drivers of lorries transporting heroin, particularly on the Balkan and Caucasus routes. In the first part of 2020, law enforcement from several EU countries and Türkiye together with Europol dismantled a criminal network comprising Turkish nationals responsible for organising the trafficking of heroin shipments from the Middle East and cocaine shipments from Latin America to Europe.
Sellers are allowed to sell drugs (and other products) after depositing a $300.00 vendor-bond. Also, I have not verified the legitimacy/authenticity of any of these markets/vendors. Hence, if you get scammed, lose your money, or order wrong products, I (the creator/s of this article) can not be held responsible. Immediately change your passwords, enable two-factor authentication, and notify your bank or credit card provider if the leaked information includes your financial data. You should also consider freezing your credit to prevent identity theft. If you’re using a browser like Tor and visiting .onion websites that aren’t accessible through regular search engines or browsers, you’re likely on the dark web.
People visit this market to buy stolen credit cards, personal data, remote desktop account credentials, and logs gathered from information-stealing malware. Torzon Market showed up on the dark web in September 2022, and it’s been growing steadily ever since. These days, it lists over 11,600 illegal items, including hard drugs, hacking tools, and all kinds of cybercrime services. Based on our observations from analysis on dark web data using Lunar, we’ve identified the top 7 marketplaces on the dark web in 2025.
What Do People Sell Or Exchange On Darknet Markets?
Darknet marketplaces remain central to illicit trade in 2025, with evolving business models, payment systems, and law enforcement responses. This survey highlights active and recently shuttered markets with actionable metrics and intelligence for threat hunters, CISOs, and red team leaders. The anonymity and lack of rules that define darknet marketplaces are exactly what make them breeding grounds for fraudulent activities. Of course, the promise of secrecy and unfiltered access might lure you in, but those same features are what make the environment so risky.
‘It’s Happening Everywhere’: 1 In 3 ICE Detainees Held In Overcrowded Facilities, Data Show
Among those addicted to it, however, heroin’s most valued effect is the ecstatic reaction that it gives after being intravenously injected; within seconds a warm, glowing sensation spreads over the body. This brief but intense rush is then followed by a deep, drowsy state of relaxation and contentment that is marked by a clouding of consciousness and by poor concentration and attention. Some individuals do react negatively to heroin, experiencing only anxiety, nausea, and depression.
- It’s shocking to see they have multiple clear web addresses but no onion URL (tells you a lot about how complicated these illicit markets can be; they could be plotting users on the surface web who don’t have any security shield, like Tor in the case of onion sites, as they can’t be accessed without it).
- The network recruited and trafficked at least 65 individuals (principally of Lithuanian nationality) from vulnerable socioeconomic backgrounds, some of whom were drug-dependent, to act as drug dealers or couriers.
- Until Afghanistan has a stable security environment with sustainable rural and private sectors and robust law enforcement capability, drug production and trafficking will continue.
- This gang also sold drugs to dealers in Connecticut, Massachusetts,and Vermont.
- The Tor network provides online anonymity and privacy that allow freedom for everyone.
- Many people (mostly criminals) use these sites to perform illegal transactions such as selling banned goods and services.
TOP PRODUCTS
Agora Marketplace, perhaps the most trusted of the modern darknet markets, seems from every indication to be doing brisk business. (Most darknet markets take a commission of every sale made via its services.) Within minutes of downloading the Tor brower and finding a referral code, I was able to quickly skim through hundreds of listings of everything from shotguns to barbiturates. South American heroin is most prevalent; however, Southeast and Southwest Asian heroin also are available. Mexican black tar and brown powdered heroin are sporadically available. New York City is a primary transportation hub and distribution center for significant quantities of heroin. Heroin is transported into New York from source countries by air, land, and maritime conveyances.
Security Tips: Make Yourself Invisible
Usually, buyers and sellers would have trouble connecting and hence justifying large-scale international trafficking. Darknets solve this problem by offering retail quantities of drug types that are traditionally difficult to source, such as MDMA, directly to buyers. The darknet is an encrypted portion of the internet not indexed by search engines. It requires specific anonymising browser software to access, typically I2P or Tor software – hence the local market’s name. Decrying the penetration of Mexican cartels into U.S. territory, then, means considering how the modus operandi of these drug networks actually function. Mexican cartels may be in the U.S., but they may not even be interested, let alone capable, of fully controlling the domestic market.
Take Operation Onymous, the police investigation that took down the Silk Road 2.0 and other smaller markets, as an example. Nicolas Cristin and Kyle Soska, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, used automated software to track the visible pages of 35 dark Net markets. They compared the number of listed products with the number of product reviews, which are often required on drug sites and assumed to represent a single purchase order.
Buying Drugs Online Is No Longer A Niche Activity
Due to the nature of the money crossing hands, users of Darknet markets should be extra wary while using the services available. WeTheNorth is a Canadian market established in 2021 that also serves international users. It offers counterfeit documents, financial fraud tools, hacking and malware services. It has an active forum and community along with an extensive user vetting process. Launched in 2023, STYX focuses on financial crime, providing stolen credit card data, hacked bank accounts and access to various cryptocurrency laundering tools.
Talk With One Of Our Treatment Specialists!
The more proactive you are, the better you can protect yourself against identity theft and other cyber threats. And, of course, think twice before sharing too much personal details online. Even the smallest details about you can be useful to cybercriminals. That all is for general internet activities, you can guess how crucial having a VPN is when you hop onto something like the dark web. Sometimes, you might be hacked by using weak passwords or even just connecting to unsecured Wi-Fi on public networks. And in a world where almost everything we do is online, taking your digital privacy seriously is more important than ever.
You can even find things such as BIN checkers and PayPal cookie converters. Another reason the Russian Market is so popular is that it’s pretty inexpensive compared to other dark web marketplaces. Established in 2020, Awazon Market has quickly become one of the most famous darknet marketplaces. The market claims to provide secure and anonymous commerce services.
When dissolved in water, it can be injected subcutaneously (skin-popping) or intravenously (mainlining). But heroin addicts, as opposed to novice users of the drug, almost invariably inject it intravenously, because this produces the most rapid and intense euphoric effects. Treatments for OUD include medicines to treat withdrawal symptoms, medicine to block the effects of opioids, and behavioral treatments. Opioid tolerance occurs when a person using opioids begins to experience a reduced response to medication or a drug, requiring more opioids to experience the same effect. At higher doses over time, the body can experience opioid dependence. If someone who is dependent on heroin stops using it, they can have withdrawal symptoms.
Thetops of the 10 club soda cans were carefully removed, replaced by crimping, andsealed with clear silicone making visual detection extremely difficult. Couriersare sometimes given a phone number, a first name, or a pager, and are told to goto a certain location in New York and await contact. In other instances, anindividual waits for the courier at the airport. Sometimes a courier isinstructed to check into a hotel and then contact an individual waiting for hisor her call. Heroin also is transported into New York through package deliveryservices. Chainalysis data shows darknet marketplace revenue dropped post-Hydra seizure in 2022 but recovered to $2 billion in Bitcoin inflows during 2024 Darknet market BTC inflow drop and shift to Monero.
