The correct term in English is dead drop, it's the subject of an infinite number of spy movies ;-)Polyfront has a great resource on the subject of dead drops:http://2po5jdzeffv2kyv3.onion/polyfront/organization.htmlQuoteProduct Transfer Topologies:Smuggling organizations use one or more of the following product transfer topologies; face to face, dead drop or double dead drop.The face to face (live drop) topology involves a person either going to a source or going to a destination, exchanging money for product, and then returning to their base location. This topology is commonly used by inexperienced networks and low level dealers. The face to face topology is insecure for a variety of reasons. The primary reason that face to face transactions are insecure is due to the risk of dealing with an undercover or an informant and controlled buys (stings) or sells (reverse stings). In a face to face transaction, a vendor must hope that they never deal with an informant or undercover agent because if they do they have zero security to protect themselves from being arrested or identified for further intelligence gathering. Another serious disadvantage of the face to face topology is the fact that product may be vulnerable in transit for significant periods of time. This is the case both with large buys being brought from one geographic area to a more distant geographic area, as well as smaller amounts of product being brought to many destinations within the same geographic area.The dead drop topology is an improvement on the face to face topology and is ideal for secure local distribution. In a dead drop model, Alice drops (usually shoves a hollowed out spike filled with product into the fround) the product at a given location and records the GPS coordinates. Alice can now give Bob the coordinates, and by using a GPS device Bob can quickly locate the product and make a pick up. GPS is a receive only technology so there is no risk of Alice or Bob being subjected to geopositioning attacks due to the use of a GPS device.If Alice maintains her pseudonymity/anonymity in other areas (EX: Tor for communications, Bitcoin for financial) , dead drop product transfers offer her tremendous advantages over face to face product transfers. As Bob can no longer determine Alices real identity, or even come into contact with her, Alice is significantly protected from all human intelligence based attacks (informants and undercovers) and the threat model changes to focus on the harder to exploit technical security models (signals intelligence, financial network analysis, etc). Although a malicious Bob can not easily identify Alice if dead drops are used, a malicious Alice can identify Bob. This can be expressed as follows; 'an attacker can move down, but not up'. However, dead drops also have advantages for Bob; for one there is very little risk of interception compared to the double dead drop topology. Also, dead drops do not require Bob to open a box with fake identification or get product sent to an otherwise limited number of boxes in his geographic area. Dead drops also have disadvantages over double dead drops, primarily they are only suited for local product transfers. Long distance dead drops have the same risk of interception in transit as face to face product transfers.Another product transfer topology is the double dead drop (parasitic smuggling). In this model, Alice will drop product (at a mail box, for example) and then a neutral carrier (mail delivery service) will bring the product to another drop location (mail box) where Bob will pick it up. Double dead drops maintain the primary benefits of single dead drops; Alice is largely protected from human intelligence attacks if she otherwise maintains her anonymity. As with single dead drops, the attacker can move down the network but not up.Double dead drops also have a variety of advantages and disadvantages as compared to single dead drops. One of the disadvantages for Bob is his requirement to either open a box with fake identification or otherwise locate a box or location suitable for having the product shipped to. Bob may do surveillance on a random house and determine the occupants schedules, by doing this Bob may be able to determine a suitable shipping location with out the requirement of opening a box himself. An advantage of double dead drops over single dead drops is their ability to transfer product over large geographic distances. Another disadvantage of the double dead drop is that the product is vulnerable to interception while it is in transit, customs and postal inspectors actively screen for contraband in the mail system (although due to the very large volumes of mail, they are incapable of detecting much of it, particularly if it does not pass through customs).The increased risk of interception may be countered by having the ability to detect interception. This can in some cases be accomplished by monitoring the tracking however it is a bad idea to rely on this method of interception detection. A more sophisticated method of detecting interception is the use of technology. By creating RFID devices attached to photovoltaic cells with volatile memory chips, interception can be detected prior to picking up product. The interception detecting devices store a state in memory which can be made to transmit after a period of time. Battery powered RFID tags can transmit a signal over one hundred feet. By configuring the devices to wipe the volatile memory if the photovoltaic cell is triggered, we can detect interceptions. If customs opens the package, the photovoltaic cell triggers a wipe function and clears the key stored in memory. By using a wand to scan for the signal produced by the key, you can thus determine if your package was opened between the vendor sending it and your box (No transmit = opened or RFID tag removed ... Transmit = not opened and RFID tag in place). Customs will not be able to replace the state of the volatile memory after triggering the wipe sequence. More sophisticated devices can also be made in order to trigger upon oxygen and other stimuli. These devices can be created for small sums of money and are quite small. (Note: It is more precise to say that product moves 'outwards' away from the source, and money moves 'inwards' toward the source)Product transfer can be seen as taking place over a hierarchial pyramid, from top level suppliers to bottom level consumers. This is true of all distribution networks. A vendor can securely transfer product by using either the dead drop or double dead drop topologies. Additionally, measures can be taken to protect the customer (EX: Avoid mail flags, interception detection technology, fake documentation to open boxes, etc).