Silk Road forums

http://www.unc.edu/courses/2009spring/law/357c/001/Online_Drug_Sales/Illegal_Drugs/Acquisition.html

Illegal Drugs
Getting It Is Easy

Online drug trafficking has skyrocketed as use of the internet becomes more commonplace, presenting many more challenges and dangers than traditional drug trafficking.  Drug-related activity is widespread on the net; even a beginner can easily access all the information he or she needs to produce, cultivate, purchase, sell, or use any illegal drug, even the obscure ones.  Interpol says that more than 1,000 websites worldwide—most based in Sweden and the Netherlands—are selling cannabis, Ecstasy, and other illicit drugs.  “Buying drugs on the internet is really easy.  You only need an internet café, a credit card, and it’s done,” said Daniel Altmeyer, an Interpol officer who attended the World Forum Against Drugs in Sweden.  “On the internet [drug buyers] have access to websites, forums, and chatrooms [sic] where a link that can provide them with illegal drugs is only a click away.”

One who uses illegal drugs or is contemplating their use can easily access information about them on websites, as well as search for user or wholesale quantities of drugs.  Illegal drugs and controlled substances are openly advertised, as distributors and customers post and discuss drug prices on websites.  Chat rooms and discussion boards are also utilized to arrange the sale of drugs or the chemicals that make them.  The drugs are then shipped to the customer at an agreed upon price, and oftentimes traffickers use web-based package-tracking services offered by international courier companies to track the progress of their shipment.
Difficulty in enforcement

Drug traffickers are increasingly using sophisticated technology to sell their stashes, launder their money, trade tips and techniques, and otherwise hide their identities and illicit actions.  Many traffickers are taking advantage of emails, private web rings, discussion boards and chat rooms, or are protecting their sites with encryption, hidden text, passwords, and registration requirements in an attempt to evade law enforcement.  Other traffickers are using tracking services offered by courier companies to keep tabs on their shipments; any undue delay might signal that authorities have intercepted the package, giving the sellers time to cover their tracks.

Additionally, the global nature of the entire transaction creates a challenge for law enforcement.  The computer is merely a communication tool, not the scene of the crime; the crime may occur in a number of places across the globe.  “A website may be hosted in Sweden, but the drug will come from Latin America and will be shipped by boat to South Africa, with dealers spread out across Europe,” an Interpol officer explains.  The patchwork of laws governing narcotics varies widely between countries; one product may be legal in one place but not in another.  This disparity gives traffickers the ability to use the internet to trail their activities in many different jurisdictions, minimizing the chances of being apprehended and maximizing profit.  Overcoming this challenge is difficult for authorities, which must comply with laws restricting tracing and seizure of evidence as well as the dealer’s First Amendment rights to privacy and freedom of speech.

www.postalinspectorsvideo.com/uspis/AnnualReport2010.pdf

http://insightcrime.org/criminal-activities/drug-trafficking/item/1375-snail-mail-used-to-transport-drugs-in-south-florida

A report from South Florida says that the state is intercepting unusually high amounts of drugs in U.S. and commercial mail services, possibly indicating that drug traffickers have found a new favored transport route.

From marijuana and cocaine to prescription drugs, smugglers are using the mail as a safer means to transport goods to South Florida, according to a report by local newspaper the Sun Sentinel. The shipments are usually small, with typical packages containing only contain 20 to 30 pounds of marijuana or a pound or two of cocaine.

Nationally the amount of drugs confiscated via mail has steadily decreased, but in Florida the trend is on the rise. In both 2009 and 2010 only 37 pounds of cocaine were seized through Florida mail. During the first half of 2011, however, authorities confiscated 44 pounds of the drug.

According to one postal inspector based in the southern city Miramar, most of the packages seized in Florida originate from the southwest region of the U.S., where bulked-up security measures along the border may be pressuring smugglers into using different tactics.

Because mail is protected under a citizen’s right to privacy, authorities need a search warrant to open and inspect suspicious packages. U.S. Mail, as well as private carriers such as FedEx and UPS, all reportedly have security measures in place for identifying suspect mail, including examining the packaging. Smugglers of marijuana for example, must wrap their packages in plastic and cover them with axle grease or fabric softener sheets to overpower the smell.

It is rare that mail seizures result in arrests. Last year one Florida resident was arrested and sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for having a kilo of cocaine shipped to himself from the Virgin Islands in a package labeled “Legal Documents.”

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2194/is_n2-3_v65/ai_18447923/

Most Americans use the U.S. Postal Service nearly every day. Whether to send bills to clients, advertise for new customers, or exchange letters with friends, citizens rely on the Postal Service to help them conduct their professional and personal business. Unfortunately, some people use it to conduct illegal business--namely, drug distribution.

In Omaha, Nebraska, authorities have taken steps to cut off the drug trade conducted by mail. In 1988. inspectors from the U.S. Postal Inspection Service proposed a partnership with the Omaha, Nebraska, Police Department's Narcotics Unit to interdict drugs transported into the city by mail. Prior intelligence gathering revealed that dealers smuggled large amounts of cocaine into Omaha simply by wrapping up the drugs and mailing them at the post office. Smugglers often used express delivery methods because the demands of quick delivery lowered the chances of detection by postal inspectors.

The joint operation has yielded positive results. In one early case, inspectors intercepted a suspicious package mailed from Los Angeles, California, to an Omaha address. Based on the subsequent investigation, inspectors obtained a search warrant for the package, which contained 6 ounces (186 grams) of powdered cocaine.

The drugs led the joint team to a big arrest when an undercover postal inspector made a controlled delivery of the package to the mailing address in Omaha, and police officers immediately executed a search warrant on the location. Inside, officers apprehended a hard core gang member who had relocated from southern California and established gun- and drug-running operations in the city. The success of this operation and others like it stemmed from two factors: Use of a package profile to identify suspicious parcels and close cooperation between the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Omaha Police Narcotics Unit during the investigatory process.

THE PROFILE

To identify pieces of mail that might contain controlled substances, postal inspectors rely on a package profile based on a readily discernable, predetermined set of criteria. Past court decisions make clear that the regular application of a consistent set of criteria is not intrusive.(1) Using the profile helps establish reasonable suspicion, which is required by the Postal Service to detain mail for examination.(2)

The profile sets criteria for both the package's condition and its label. Taken individually, few of the criteria would indicate that the package contains contraband; however, a combination of these factors indicates a suspicious package worthy of a second look.

First, in terms of the package itself, inspectors look for parcels that have been heavily taped along the seams, have been prepared poorly for mailing, have an uneven weight distribution, or apparently have been reused. However, inspectors do not identify questionable pieces of mail only by sight; suspicious packages frequently emit odors of marijuana or of a masking agent, such as perfume, coffee, or fabric-softener sheets.

Second, package labels often provide clues. Inspectors look for labels that have been handwritten; contain misspelled names, streets, or cities; originate from a drug-source State; and have been sent from one person to another, not from a business to an individual. Further identifiers include a return address ZIP code that does not match the accepting post office ZIP code or a fictitious return address. Finally, the names of the sender and/or the receiver frequently have a common ring to them, such as John Smith, and have no connection to either address.

Postal inspectors receive copies of all labels from packages signed for by the recipient. If a particular address receives multiple deliveries from a drug-source State, for example, inspectors will check with postal carriers at both the sending and receiving addresses to verify names and addresses. If the return address is fictitious or if the listed names do not have a connection to either address, inspectors will be alert to intercept future packages.

THE INVESTIGATION

The Postal Inspection Service bears responsibility for detecting suspicious packages. This type of investigation requires patience, because inspectors routinely examine hundreds of mailing labels on packages sent through the mail. Through these examinations, inspectors attempt to recognize packages matching the profile characteristics. When they locate a suspicious package, the investigation begins.

Present Package to Drug Dog

Upon discovery of a suspicious package, postal inspectors notify the Omaha Police Narcotics Unit. The unit's supervisor assigns a drug dog handler to meet with the inspector and present the package to the dog.

Presentation strategies vary. Sometimes the handler hides the package to see if the dog can sniff out its location. At other times, the handler presents the suspicious package to the dog, along with other similar parcels.

The dog handler carefully records the details of the presentation for future use as search warrant documentation. The dog's positive reaction to the package indicates the presence of drugs, which in many cases establishes probable cause to prepare a search warrant to inspect the parcel's contents.

Obtain Search Warrants

Suspicious package investigations typically require two search warrants: One to open and search the package and one to search the mailing address after delivery of the parcel. Postal inspectors and police investigators work closely to ensure that all documentation for the warrants is complete and accurate, important factors in obtaining evidence and prosecuting the case.

Searching the Package

Because the U.S. mail falls under Federal jurisdiction, a Federal warrant must be obtained for any suspicious package. The police drug dog handler helps the inspector prepare the affidavit because they must provide the magistrate with a history of the dog's reliability and past achievements.

Having obtained the warrant, postal inspectors open the package. This important step must not be dealt with carelessly. The package might need to be resealed for a controlled delivery, so inspectors must exercise caution. To preserve fingerprints on any item or contraband, the person opening the package wears rubber gloves. Inspectors also photograph the opening of the parcel in a series of steps for use as future evidence.

In the formative stages of Omaha's program, postal inspectors and police investigators met with prosecutors to determine a strategy for handling cases brought by the joint team. They concurred that when a package containing drugs was identified, investigators would remove most of the drugs, leaving just a small amount to be resealed in the package and delivered later. Prosecutors agreed that they could argue successfully in court that the defendant found in possession of the resealed package actually had "constructive possession" of the original amount of contraband. However, to preserve the elements of the State or Federal drugs violation, it would be best if at least some of the drugs originally seized were delivered in the package.

After removing most of the illegal substance, inspectors frequently replace it with an imitation so as not to alert suspects when they open the package. For example, a recent investigation in Omaha located a large amount of crack cocaine formed into the shape of cookies. Investigators left several of the original crack cookies in the package but substituted sugar cookies for the rest.

On a practical note, this procedure safeguards against the loss of the evidence in the unlikely event that the subject eludes police officers after the package is delivered but before the search warrant of the residence can be executed. Omaha officers quickly discovered that suspects often attempt to leave the location with the evidence immediately following the controlled delivery of the package but prior to the entry team's arrival.

Searching the Address

Once the package has been searched and resealed, the Omaha Police Narcotics Unit supervisor prepares a search warrant for the mailing address. This does not have to be a Federal warrant, but the Federal search warrant used to open the package is referenced in the warrant petition and a copy is attached.

A police investigator and the postal inspector collaborate to prepare the second search warrant. The affidavit describes exactly how the investigation began--with discovery of the suspicious package--and follows with the details of presenting the parcel to the drug dog, obtaining the Federal search warrant, opening the package, and locating the drugs. The affidavit also notes that officers removed a specific amount of the drug from the package, left a small amount, and refilled the package with an imitation substance.

This type of search warrant is anticipatory in nature. That is, the affidavit clearly must show that law enforcement officers currently possess the drugs to be seized and that they intend to serve the search warrant after the controlled delivery of the package. If probable cause exists, items such as packaging materials, scales, long distance telephone bills, money, drug records, and additional drugs should be listed on the warrant to be seized. Any historical or intelligence information about the address of the anticipated delivery or the persons known to frequent the address also should be documented in the affidavit.

Prepare for Delivery

The next step involves delivering the package to the intended address under carefully controlled conditions. The Narcotics Unit supervisor handles three aspects of this operation. The supervisor arranges the controlled delivery, establishes a secure perimeter around the address to prevent the subject from leaving with the package, and supervises the execution of the search warrant.

First, the supervisor conducts an extensive reconnaissance of the address, especially noting all possible exits. Because at least several minutes will elapse between the controlled delivery and the execution of the search warrant to allow the recipient time to open the package, all exits of the address must be placed under surveillance to prevent anyone from leaving with the package.

Second, the supervisor briefs all officers involved in executing the search warrant, dividing officers between the perimeter and entry teams. The perimeter team, which keeps all exits of the target address under surveillance, must be positioned to stop and arrest anyone who might leave with the package after it has been delivered. The entry team, which typically comprises Omaha police officers, postal inspectors, and occasionally, FBI agents, serves the warrant, makes appropriate arrests, and conducts the subsequent search of the premises.

Deliver the Package

An undercover postal inspector normally delivers the package after the perimeter team takes its position. In most situations, the Narcotics Unit supervisor then gives the recipient enough time to open the package, because an opened package undermines the commonly used defense that the suspect did not know what it contained.

In addition, experience shows that the original recipient often will turn over the parcel to a second person who arrives within minutes of the delivery. For this reason, the supervisor might choose to wait a considerable length of time before sending in the entry team.

Execute the Search Warrant

At the appropriate time, the entry team executes the search warrant for the package on the target location. During the search, officers remain alert for additional drugs, drug records, money, long distance telephone bills, scales, baggies, and other labels of packages previously mailed to the address, as listed on the warrant.

Upon completion of the search, the supervisor quickly analyzes the situation to determine whether to interrogate the person who signed for the package on the scene. If such questioning could prove fruitful, the suspect is advised of his Miranda rights. On occasion, by immediately interrogating the recipient, investigators have convinced suspects to make tape-recorded telephone contact with a second suspect who, in turn, arrived at the scene only to be arrested.

Investigators question the arrested parties thoroughly to determine their knowledge of the parcel's contents and their connections with a network of people involved in smuggling the package into the city. Many postal profiling cases in Omaha have resulted in Federal prosecution of individuals in other States, such as California, for participating in drug smuggling operations.

SUCCESSES

The success of the package profiling program in Omaha proves that law enforcement can transcend jurisdictional boundaries to combat crimes that often go undetected. Highlights of the program include two separate seizures of 3-pound quantities of crack cocaine valued at approximately $250,000 each that had been mailed to Omaha from sources in Los Angeles.

Not all seizures have run smoothly. In one case, inspectors intercepted a package containing 5 ounces (155 grams) of methamphetamine. Following standard procedure, officers removed all but 5 grams of the substance, which they sealed in a tube taped to the inside of the package. A female at the target address signed for the package during the controlled delivery, but when officers executed the search warrant, no drugs could be found. Knowing that they had delivered the methamphetamine, officers conducted an extensive and thorough search of the premises but to no avail. Finally, several hours later, the woman vomited the tube intact. She had swallowed it when she saw the law enforcement officers approach the residence.

Despite the occasional mishap, the package profiling system has produced many seizures that have netted both crack and powdered cocaine, marijuana, LSD, methamphetamine, heroin, steroids, and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Prosecutors have obtained numerous felony convictions in both Federal and State courts.

CONCLUSION

Profiling postal packages represents a challenging and exciting aspect of drug enforcement. In the future, law enforcement agencies might expand the use of this technique to detect packages transported by private carriers and parcel services.

The expertise gained by working with postal inspectors to detect controlled substances sent by mail could be applied to private carriers in an attempt to choke off other conduits for transporting controlled substances. By employing every method available, U.S. Postal Inspectors can work with local law enforcement agencies to keep the Postal Service from being an unwitting and unwilling drug courier.

RELATED ARTICLE: The Profile

Postal inspectors use these criteria to identify packages that might contain drugs.

Package Criteria

* Emits odors of marijuana or or a masking agent (e.g., coffee, perfume, fabric-softener sheets)

* Is heavily taped along seams

* Is poorly prepared for mailing

* Appears to have been re-used

* Has an uneven weight distribution

Label Criteria

* Is handwritten

* Contains misspelled names, streets, or cities

* Originates from a drug source State

* Has been sent from an individual to an individual

* Contains return address ZIP code that does not match accepting post office ZIP code

* Shows a fictitious return address

* Lists sender's and/or receiver's names of common type (e.g., John Smith) that are not connected to either address

Ok, thanks! This is some good in-depth info. Although the communication is not decrypted, there is not much .onion sites who will cause Tor client such behavior, right?

Any idea when this will be implemented in stable Tor release?

I don't know when it will be implemented in stable. Only hidden services with a lot of people using them at the same time will have this naturally arise with no malicious party, although it is possible for an attacker to take steps to trigger the bug themselves.

The timeout to SR is because its introduction nodes are being DDOSED by clients. Clients who have already established circuits to SR will be able to keep surfing it, but clients who need to connect to introduction nodes are incapable of establishing new circuits. This is why it appears to be down for some people during the same time period that it is obviously up for others. Changing to a new circuit will not help at all. tor-2.3.11-alpha has hidden services dynamically modify the number of introduction nodes they use based on the number of clients that connect to them.

It is also bad for client anonymity when the introduction nodes go down, next time you can't get SR to load check your Tor circuits. If it is down for the reason I just mentioned and not actual server down time, you will notice that your client is building a fucking lot of circuits that all fail one after the other. It may build a hundred or more failed circuits in just a few minutes. This is because when introduction points are down Tor essentially treats them as a failed circuit and tries again and again to connect to them but they are still down. tor-2.3.11-alpha stops attempting to connect to introduction nodes after far fewer circuits. BTW this means that during periods when introduction nodes are down if you keep trying to connect to SR you are quickly going to be traceable to your entry guards, your client goes into hyper mode and builds way more circuits than it should be building. In essence your anonymity will be decreased to barely more than that of a hidden services.

SR loads fine for me most of the time, but during certain times of day (obviously when a lot of people are trying to connect to it) it is frequently down. If you live in an uncommon time zone and are surfing SR while the majority of users are sleeping or working, you probably will not notice this as much.

I would just use a private or semi-private Tor bridge personally. Look into obfsproxy too, that will help a lot. Tor is about to become a lot more membership concealment friendly via bridges and soon using bridges will be the clear winner when it comes to membership concealment. It already is one of the best options.

Enelysion never got anything sent to his house. He had an international kilo of methylone intercepted and it got him put under surveillance. They seem to have staked out his fake ID box for days waiting for him to come, although they did leave a love letter in the box. I heard from someone else who talked frequently with him, that he had at least one other love letter prior to that one, but that he was almost positive he had just been scammed and a fake love letter sent. I remember somewhat him talking about this as well, but I didn't pay much attention to it and it has been so many months now that I honestly am not entirely clear on my last conversations with him.

From the legal documents I have seen so far he may very well have been scammed with the first love letter, because it seems the methylone is what led to him being identified, I saw no mention of a prior interception. I am not sure if he kept using the box after the interception. He did have other packages already in route to it though, and they were intercepted when they got to the box. He told me he didn't think anyone was following him from the box and that he took a long route home after getting that love letter. If they got him under surveillance during the last confirmed time he went to his box when he got that last love letter, apparently they were quite sneaky about it.

He was paranoid that people were following him taking pictures of him, but if this was shortly before or after he got the love letter I can not remember. He told me this fairly shortly before he was raided. He thought they may be private investigators hired by someone he had beef with, I kind of discounted it because the dude was always unrealistically paranoid during periods (okay okay so am I lol), but I did let him know they were more likely feds than PIs. At this point I actually told him to clean house and take his shit somewhere else for shipping, and to just handle orders and let someone else ship.

I am still not clear if he had the drugs and press at his house or at a storage center he obtained with a fake ID. Court documents make notice of a garage in particular, it doesn't specify if it was a garage on a house or a rented garage. I think he may have kept shit at a rented storage center with fake IDs but I am not sure. I can confirm this after talking with some of his IRL friends I know online, but everyone in his circle has been laying low as fuck since this happened and I have myself not been online very much the past few months so we have all had minimal contact.

The feds illegally placed GPS trackers on his vehicle. They followed him to some unknown degree (manned surveillance the entire time? Just GPS surveillance? Who knows) for some period of time that I can't remember even though it is in the court documents, I think it was at least a few weeks though. I will check on this again too, sorry I just can not remember how long he was being watched for. After a while they started checking some of his outgoing mail they observed him dropping in random mail boxes, and drug dogs magically hit on I think it was four outgoing packs that had nothing in them they were trained to smell. I don't know if those customers got visits by the feds or not. I do know he sent out a lot of packages in this time period though and that apparently only four of the packs were intercepted. It is worth noting that I heard a very believable rumor that he sent $50,000 CIM to a vendor in this time frame, and that vendor has been having a lot of interceptions lately. I probably should let them know, I don't think they knew him as enelysion or know that he was arrested or under surveillance, although they did apparently just pocket the money since he was arrested before they got his shipping address (keep in mind this is all hearsay...).

The drugs they found him mailing out were apparently used to get a warrant to raid him (although honestly I don't see why they couldn't get a warrant based on mail fraud or fraud for a storage garage, he did apparently commit at least one of those crimes). I believe when they raided him he was not home but was on vacation actually, I don't know if they raided only his house or also his storage center. From what I have heard he was arrested by various federal and local agencies as he pulled into his drive way after his vacation. His computers were all encrypted although also all seized, last info I got indicates that he did not cooperate in giving them decryption keys. He is worried they might have covertly put keyloggers on them although there is no evidence to substantiate his fears (although they did covertly GPS his vehicle, and they did know he was Enelysion so maybe they did, who knows. I have good reason to believe that they did not, but I am by no means certain.).

His girl of course essentially snitched on him, but I don't hold it against her as he was always quite clear to me that if she was facing prison time it was what he wanted her to do to save herself. He did sort of corrupt her, I guess. Anyway, it was what he wanted, although who knows if he still wants it now that it actually came to pass. She is about to have his baby and he wanted someone to be there to take care of it.

The agents did know he was Enelysion on OVDB and they also told him in a taunting way that they were doing a name flooding attack since it was open registration. Then again they also told him that they pwnt Tor to find him and all evidence makes it seem like this is total bullshit. The investigation was started by the department of homeland security, it seems like they were actually investigating enelysion for several months but only managed to locate him when they intercepted the methylone. My guess is they were doing intensive screening of mail to box stores in that area in an attempt to find him, although maybe not since he did get a lot of packs through prior to that one being seized. Then again they had trouble finding bombs mailed by terrorists even when human intelligence indicated that there were some and the source country was known. He was stupid to be shipping out of the area he lived in and also getting international packs to the area he lived in.

Last I I heard they were offering him 15 years if he pled guilty, although previously I had heard 30 years. I guess we will know when he is sentenced, he doesn't have a trial date yet and is still being held at a mental hospital for a psych evaluation, he had a psychotic break down shortly after he was arrested.

Sorry if there is any incorrect information in this post, it is accurate to the best of my knowledge at this time but I do need to confirm a few things. I also get a bit of conflicting information from different sources, and my own memory is not perfect. I wish I paid better attention to him some of the times we talked, especially towards the end.

I have really just not been very involved with online scene since this shit happened, and was very busy IRL also. These days I am happy to just help people out with security and study security and computers for my own personal benefit and projects, and my involvement with the scene outside of SR and my close circle of internet friends from years and years ago is essentially zero these days. It is actually a very relieving feeling. I wish that Enelysion made the same choice before they pwnt him.

The lead agent on his case calls himself a leading expert in regards to the online drug trade, but he obviously doesn't know shit about it because he claimed that in his expert opinion the blue tablets they found were MDMA but anyone in the scene knows the bee tabs are 2c-b. Guess that right there shows they don't have people on any of the serious private forums since everyone knows that lol.