Do police crackdowns disrupt drug cryptomarkets? A longitudinal analysis of the effects of Operation Onymous

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of online illicit markets where participants can purchase and sell a wide range of goods and services such as drugs, hacking services, and stolen financial information. Second-generation markets, known as cryptomarkets, provide a pseudo-anonymous platform from which to operate and have attracted the attention of researchers, regulators, and law enforcement. This paper focuses on the impact of police crackdowns on cryptomarkets, and more particularly on the impact of Operation Onymous, a large-scale police operation in November 2014 that targeted many cryptomarkets. Our results demonstrate that cryptomarket participants adapt to police operations and that the impact of Operation Onymous was limited in time and scope. Of particular interest is the finding that prices did not increase following Operation Onymous, even though many dealers retired shortly after it occurred.     

A mountain or a molehill: is the illicit trade in cigarettes undermining tobacco control policy in South Africa?

This study estimates the size of the market for illicit cigarettes in South Africa between 1997 and 2007 in order to consider the impact of the illicit trade in cigarettes on the effectiveness of tobacco control policies. Estimates of the illicit market are made using data on smoking prevalence and simulations of smoking intensity. The paper shows that the size of the illicit market to have grown substantially from 1997 until peaking in 2000 between 9.4% and 11.5% of the total market. The most recent estimate for 2007 suggests that the illicit market occupied between 7.0% and 11.2% of the total market. These estimates are significantly lower than the anecdotal claims of the tobacco industry. Although the scale of the illicit market is significant it has not undermined tobacco control policy. Consumption in the total market, including both the illicit and legal market, has declined in size consistently. At the same time, tax revenue from higher excise taxes has offset the tax losses as a result of illicit trade.     

Environmental Pollen Trapped by Tobacco Leaf as Indicators of the Provenance of Counterfeit Cigarette Products: A Preliminary Investigation and Test of Concept

Abstract: The global trade in counterfeit tobacco products is increasingly taking market share from legal brands in many parts of the developed world, with attendant adverse economic, health, criminal, and other societal impacts. Knowing the geographical source is central to developing new strategies for curbing this illicit trade, and here, the potential of environmental pollen extracted from manufactured cigarettes is examined. Two samples representing U.S. and Chinese brands were investigated for their pollen content. Results indicate that tobacco leaf very efficiently captures environmental pollen (about 1800 and 12,600 grains per cigarette, respectively) with no detectable self‐contamination by the tobacco plant. In both cases, the flora is typical of open space environments, but pollen type counts indicate very different distributions of species. This preliminary investigation indicates that palynology has the potential to constrain geographical source(s) of tobacco, particularly if regionally localized species can be recognized among the pollen.     

Development of a specific fragment pattern-based quadrupole-Orbitrap mass spectrometry method to screen adulterated products of phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors and their analogues

Recently, adulterated supplements with phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors (PDE-5i) have frequently observed. New synthetic analogues obtained from the chemical modification of parent compounds are frequently found in illicit products despite continuous efforts to inspect for these adulterants. A rapid and accurate method based on quadrupole-Orbitrap mass spectrometry was developed for simultaneously confirming and quantifying 85 PDE-5i and derived analogues present in illicit products for erectile dysfunction (ED). Common ions of PDE-5i according to their similar structures were proposed based on MS/MS fragmentations. These common ions could be an important diagnosis of their presence targets or new emerging analogues in supplements. Several validation parameters were employed, resulting in a limit of detection and quantification of 0.09–8.55 ng/mL and 0.24–17.10 ng/mL, respectively. The linear correlation coefficient (r²) was higher than 0.995, and mean recoveries of target compounds were in the range of 82–118%. A total of 187 illicit products, obtained from on/offline markets over a period of 3 years (2015–2017), were screened by the established method. Approximately 53% of them were adulterated with PDE-5i or derived analogues at concentrations of 0.1–726.0 mg/g in the illicit products. In the interests of public health, this study describes a rapid and accurate method to determine PDE-5i and new emerging analogues in adulterated products.     

“Shifting the stuff wasn’t any bother”: Illicit enterprise, tobacco bootlegging and deconstructing the British government’s cigarette smuggling discourse

This paper presents the results of interactions/interviews with an active tobacco bootlegger regarding his illicit entrepreneurial activity spanning his illegal career. This narrative is intended to portray a snapshot of a type of organised criminality within an illicit market place but seeks to add to the critical academic literature responding to State-led depictions of organised crime as an apocalyptic menace. The results of the fieldwork suggest that illicit market enterprise in this context is neither threatening nor predatory, is very ordinary and, crucially, is driven by insatiable consumer demand within local trading networks.     

Irrationality,Liminality and the Demand for Illicit Firearms in the Balkans and the North Caucasus

Most conventional approaches to the study of arms trafficking are grounded on the assumption that people are rational and always seek the most cost-effective means to achieve a goal. This article discusses the illicit firearms markets in the Balkans and the North Caucasus—the regions in which trafficking of illicit firearms has been flourishing since the early 1990s. By studying the demand side of this illicit market, it provides some possible explanations as to why numerous arms reduction measures have had limited results. It argues that cultural attitudes, socio-political complexity and emotions could explain much of the “irrational” behavior of those demanding weapons in these regions. The article contributes to the scholarly debate on the applicability of the rational choice theory-inspired arms reduction policies in highly textured sociocultural contexts. It is an effort to construct multifaceted conceptualization of human choice that focuses not only on the functionality of firearms but also on their symbolic and situational meaning.     

Development of a specific fragmentation pattern-based quadrupole-Orbitrap™ mass spectrometry method to screen drugs in illicit products

Over the past decade, illicit drugs have been founded in marketed products, which pose a risk to public health. In particular, newly designed analogues synthesized by chemical modification of parent compounds to avoid detection by authorities are frequently detected worldwide. Although many analytical methods for determination of drugs have been reported, analytical methods using high-resolution mass spectrometry, which has the advantage of rapid screening and accurate identification of new substances, are necessary to control illicit drugs in marketed products. In this study, a rapid analytical method using an Orbitrap™ mass spectrometer for identification of illicit drugs in marketed products was developed. The 32 drugs were classified as benzodiazepine-, synthetic cannabinoid-, amphetamine- and benzylpiperazine-type drugs according to their chemical structures, and from their fragmentation patterns in tandem mass spectrometry spectra of an established method. The method validation gave a limit of detection of 0.06–5.30 ng/mL and a limit of quantification of 0.18–16.50 ng/mL, high linearity (R² > 0.994) and mean recoveries of spiked matrix-blank samples ranging from 83.7% to 117.1%. Approximately 71% of 21 samples collected over 3 years were found to individually contain one of four types of benzodiazepines or two different synthetic cannabinoids. In one case, levels as high as 827.2 mg/g were measured suggesting adulteration at high levels, which suggests that potential illicit products containing drugs should be regularly screened to protect public health.     

Tax evasion and illicit cigarettes in California: prevalence and demand-side correlates

Crime, Law and Social Change - Unlike some areas of crime, participation in illicit tobacco markets is not rare and spans most sociodemographic groups. Measurement of the scale of illicit trade in...     

A simulation model of tobacco youth access policies

Empirical studies have found that policies aimed at reducing youth access to tobacco have been successful at increasing retail compliance, but their effects on actual tobacco use are mixed. This article presents a model of youth access policies that helps explain the apparently conflicting results in the extant literature, provides a framework for future empirical studies, and suggests implications for public policy. Our model highlights the interaction of components in a well-designed policy, including sufficient compliance checks, penalties, and community involvement. It also illustrates why it will be difficult to eliminate all of youth supply. Nonretail sources, such as borrowing or stealing from parents and siblings and purchasing from older peers through black markets, are an important component of youth supply and become more important as retail access is reduced. The analysis is limited to policies that affect the retail supply of cigarettes but suggests the need for other policies that affect the demand for cigarettes, such as taxes and cessation policies, in order to further reduce youth smoking rates.     

Prevention science,drug abuse prevention,and Life Skills Training: Comments on the state of the science

There has been tremendous growth in the field of prevention science over the past two decades. The defining features of contemporary prevention science are high quality empirical research using rigorous and well-established scientific methods, careful hyphothesis testing, and the systematic accumulation of knowledge. One area where substantial progress has been made is in our understanding of the etiology and prevention of tobacoo, alcohol, and illicit drug abuse. In this paper, we review the growth in prevention as a scientific enterprise, discuss advances in drug abuse prevention research, and review the effectiveness of one approach to the problem of adolescent drug abuse, the Life Skills Traning (LST) program, and the methodological strengths of the LST evaluation research. In addition, we provide a response to criticism regarding two types of data analysis in evaluation research, and show that these analyses can help address a number of important research questions with implications for theory and practice. First, the analysis of high fidelity subsamples can address research questions about the importance of program implementation fidelity; and second, composite measures of concurrent tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use (i.e., polydrug use) are useful in testing research questions about program effects on more serious levels of drug involvement. With an increasing number of ramdomized controlled trials underway, the field of prevention science is contributing to a new generation of evidence-based approaches and policies that, if widely utilized, offer the potential of reducing the mortality and morbidity associated with a number of major health and social problems.     

Tobacco: a product like any other?

Legislation in most countries regulates trade in poisons and highly addictive products, such as narcotics. The statements that (1) tobacco harms health and (2) causes addiction are established as facts in international and national law. Yet in Russia, and in many other countries, there is a contradiction between the open sale of this addictive poison and basic laws, such as those on product safety. Provisions in both the Russian constitution and the criminal code can be interpreted as making the sale of tobacco illegal, setting out severe penalties for those involved. Yet, remarkably, tobacco is treated quite differently from other products. In this paper, we describe the experience so far in seeking to enforce this legislation in Russia. Attempts to persuade the police to enforce the legislation have been unsuccessful, although they accept that there is a prima facie case for action but, in private, express fear of taking it. The case for action is currently being argued before the Russian Supreme Court but this could take many years to reach a conclusion. In the mean time, new legislation on the regulation of tobacco production has been passed by the State Duma, with the support of the tobacco industry, which implicitly assumes that tobacco is a lawful product, thereby creating legal confusion. We argue that the only way to redress this situation is to recognize that tobacco production and sales must be regulated in the same way as any other harmful and addictive substance.     

Irrational Addicts and Responsible Pleasure Seekers: Constructions of the Drug User

Historically, drug use has been understood as a problem of epidemiology, psychiatry, physiology, and criminality requiring legal and medical governance. Consequently drug research tends to be underpinned by an imperative to better govern, and typically proposes policy interventions to prevent or solve drug problems. We argue that categories of ‘addictive’ and ‘recreational’ drug use are discursive forms of governance that are historically, politically and socially contingent. These constructions of the drug problem shape what drug users believe about themselves and how they enact these beliefs in their drug use practices. Based on qualitative interviews with young illicit drug users in Brisbane, Australia, this paper uses Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality to provide insights into how the governance of illicit drugs intersects with self-governance to create a drug user self. We propose a reconceptualisation of illicit drug use that takes into account the contingencies and subjective factors that shape the drug experience. This allows for an understanding of the relationships between discourses, policies, and practices in constructions of illicit drug users.     

Understanding parrot trafficking between illicit markets in Bolivia: an application of the CRAVED model

The CRAVED model has been used to understand theft variation in a whole host of hot products, including wildlife. Past research, however, has only applied the model at either the theft or illicit market stage to understand why particular products are stolen in high numbers. The CRAVED model has yet to be applied to the trafficking stage of hot products smuggled between illicit markets and, therefore, its applicability at this particular stage remains unknown. Using secondary data from the Los Pozos wildlife market in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, this study applies the CRAVED model to explain why parrot species are trafficked between illicit markets in Bolivia. This research finds that species that are more “available” and less “valuable” are more likely to be trafficked between illicit markets, suggesting that variation at the trafficking stage of the parrot trade can be explained by nearly the same CRAVED concepts as they do at the poaching stage. This study also finds that one-quarter of parrots in the Los Pozos market are trafficked to other cities, of which 99% are to the city of Cochabamba. These findings suggest that shutting down illicit markets and patrolling major roadways between cities can substantially reduce the illegal parrot trade.     

Counterfeit tobacco in London: local crime requires an international solution

The supply of counterfeit tobacco, illegally manufactured tobacco passed off as legitimate products, is a global problem that costs many governments millions of dollars annually in lost revenue. This paper looks at one end of this supply network: Kurdish refugee street sellers of counterfeit tobacco in Islington, North London. Local initiatives to deal with the criminal activity of the street sellers have been ineffective and at best have resulted in only a temporary interruption to activities. With little agreement amongst local agencies as to what constitutes the ‘problem’, and with local shoppers giving a higher priority to other neighbourhood issues, it would appear that efforts need to be focussed on interrupting the supply of counterfeit cigarettes before they reach the sellers. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, proposing marking of tobacco products, information sharing and mutual legal assistance, may offer a solution and is expected to produce a protocol for adoption in 2010.     

Four new illicit cocaine impurities from the oxidation of crude cocaine base: formation and characterization of the diastereomeric 2,3-dihydroxy-3-phenylpropionylecgonine methyl esters from cis- and trans-cinnamoylcocaine

Four new impurities have recently been detected in the gas chromatographic signature profiles of many illicit cocaine hydrochloride exhibits. These impurities are only seen in exhibits that have been oxidized and are most prominent in samples that have been highly oxidized. Exhibits containing these compounds were subjected to gas and liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometric analyses to determine the identity of the impurities. These impurities were subsequently synthesized to verify their structures. Four diastereomeric diols formed from the oxidation of cis- and trans-cinnamoylcocaine were characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry, mass spectrometry, and synthesis. Oxidation of cis-cinnamoylcocaine in neutral conditions yielded (2R,3R)-dihydroxy-3-phenylpropionylecgonine methyl ester and (2S,3S)-dihydroxy-3-phenylpropionylecgonine methyl ester, while trans-cinnamoylcocaine produced (2R,3S)-dihydroxy-3-phenylpropionylecgonine methyl ester and (2S,3R)-dihydroxy-3-phenylpropionylecgonine methyl ester. The recent appearance of these new impurities suggests that some illicit cocaine processors have modified their oxidation procedures of crude cocaine base for transformation into illicit refined cocaine hydrochloride.     

Component analysis of illicit heroin samples with GC/MS and its application in source identification

A novel method based on GC/MS and GC for component analyses of seized illicit heroin was established by using SKF525A as an internal standard. The main components in illicit heroin products such as heroin, O3-acetylmorphine, monoacetylcodeine, and O6-acetylmorphine were determined quantitatively and the organic adulterants such as paracetamol, acetaminophen caffeine and theophylline were detected qualitatively using the developed method. With these obtained data, 500 seized illicit heroin samples were divided into nine groups. The decomposition pattern of heroin was studied. The dependencies of both the decomposition pattern and the content ratios of monoacetylcodeine to heroin and monoacetylcodeine to O6-acetylmorphine on the source of the seized illicit heroin were observed. This information was used to develop a novel method for its source identification. The examination results were in agreement with the practical cases, thus providing significant information for detection of criminal cases involving illicit heroin.     

Using Open-Source Data to Identify Participation in the Illicit Antiquities Trade: A Case Study on the Cypriot Civil War

The illicit trade in antiquities from conflict zones is clandestine and politicised and it very likely involves violent, organised criminals, including paramilitaries and terrorists; so reliable, detailed information is extraordinarily difficult to access. Nonetheless, open-source data may provide clues to the structure of the market. This article reviews the development of the Cypriot antiquities trade until the outbreak of the civil war in 1963, through the cultural heritage crisis that accompanied that conflict until the coup and invasion of 1974. Then, adapting an established method for studying the scale of a small, undisturbed illicit market, it gauges communities’ participation in looting during the civil war in Cyprus. It does so by analysing the find-spot and acquisition date information in collections of antiquities recovered before and during conflict, and cross-referencing them with demographic and historical information in order to identify the communities from which the looters probably came. It uses this crude categorical method in order to assess ethnically-based narratives of looting and trading in illicit antiquities. The evidence suggests that: before the conflict, there was no correlation between community and looting; during the civil war, due to economic and geopolitical factors, members of Turkish Cypriot communities were disproportionately involved in looting; at the same time, members of Greek Cypriot communities were far more involved in looting than has previously been recognised; Greek Cypriot archaeologists have misinterpreted the structure of the trade and consequently contributed to communalist policies and nationalist histories; and the antiquities policy of the Republic of Cyprus was one of the significant causes of the developments in the trade.     

On ‘Organized Crime’ in the illicit antiquities trade: moving beyond the definitional debate

The extent to which ‘organized crime’ is involved in illicit antiquities trafficking is unknown and frequently debated. This paper explores the significance and scale of the illicit antiquities trade as a unique transnational criminal phenomenon that is often said to be perpetrated by and exhibit traits of so-called ‘organized crime.’ The definitional debate behind the term ‘organized crime’ is considered as a potential problem impeding our understanding of its existence or extent in illicit antiquities trafficking, and a basic progression-based model is then suggested as a new tool to move beyond the definitional debate for future research that may help to elucidate the actors, processes and criminal dynamics taking place within the illicit antiquities trade from source to market. The paper concludes that researchers should focus not on the question of whether organized criminals- particularly in a traditionally conceived, mafia-type stereotypical sense- are involved in the illicit antiquities trade, but instead on the structure and progression of antiquities trafficking itself that embody both organized and criminal dynamics.     

Smoking Guns: European Cigarette Smuggling in the 1990’s

This article concerns European cigarette smuggling over the past decade and examines the actors, structures and relationships which facilitated the illicit trade. It discusses the central role played by actors not traditionally associated with organised crime, such as multi-national tobacco companies, Swiss banks and the state security agencies of various Balkan states. It demonstrates how domestic legislation in Switzerland and instability in the Balkans prevented national law enforcement agencies from effectively dealing with this international network at an earlier stage. The article also focuses on the history of local and national law enforcement investigations as well as the integrated multi-national investigation project later initiated by the EU and member states. The article's conclusions suggest that while smuggling actors have successfully adapted to the process of globalisation – financial and state deregulation – law enforcement agencies remain at a disadvantage as they are hampered by the domestic legislation in nation states such as Switzerland and the United States. While cigarette smuggling was and is a major illicit industry, it has not been the subject of much academic scrutiny. This article, based on field research in the Balkans and EU member states aims to contribute to a broader understanding of a problem involving a multiplicity of criminal actors, states and law enforcement agencies.