Illicit Drug Sales Rise in “Cryptomarkets”

(Summer 2017) The sale of illegal drugs through covert online areas called “cryptomarkets” is growing. Proceeds in these venues have increased 200% since 2013 and the number of individual sales has risen three-fold.

These secret sites are generally maintained by drug dealers in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Monthly revenue is ballparked somewhere between $12 million and $21 million, with most of it paid by clients buying in bulk for resale. Marijuana revenues weigh in at close to 40% of the total profits, trailed by cocaine and amphetamines.

These “cryptomarkets” have developed since the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) shut down the illegal drug internet marketplace known as Silk Road four years ago.

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