Marketplaces on the Dark Web(1/4)
Weapon and Drug sales
The dark web is a place where all kinds of goods and services are sold. In this chapter, we will cover the most common ones, namely weapons, drugs, forgeries, and financial services. The last section will examine rarer items and urban legends (hitmen and Red Rooms). We will address paying child pornography sites in the next volume.
1 – Weapons and the dark web
Though we suspect many of the sites we index are scams, the dark web does contain real offerings. For example, last September, an individual under surveillance as a potential threat to France’s national security was arrested in the Paris area for ordering an assault rifle from a US-based site on the dark web. Illegal gun dealers sell both handguns and long guns.
AHandguns on sale on the TOR GUNS website
Long guns on sale on the TOR GUNS website
Long guns on sale on the Guns “R” Us website
Some vendors sell other types of weapons: grenades, rocket launchers, and even anti-tank missiles. The website shown below does not seem credible, but the ones above might be real and come from a Ukrainian source.
The Black Market Guns site is the oldest active arms dealer on the dark web. The photos of the weapons contain a watermark to prevent others from copying and reusing them on fake sites.
BMG : BMG: an active arms sales website
Examples of the same retouched image from two different vendors (Danau and GunStore)
Some wary buyers may request more specific proof, as vendor Firearms72 indicated. A buyer asked the vendor to put a lighter in the photo of the gun for sale, instead of the regular piece of paper. The vendor posted the photo of the gun with the lighter, but we have no way of knowing whether it was edited.
2 – Selling poison and venom on the dark web
At the intersection between weapons and drugs, another vendor offers a range of poisons and venoms. Some of the products sold, such as Polonium or VX, make us doubt the veracity of the offer.
Home page of a website selling poison and venom
The different poisons of the website
The different types of venom on sale
3 – Drugs for sale on the dark web
In contrast, the numerous narcotics sites seem much more credible. Vendors may offer a single product or several types.
Cannabis website
Website offering a wide range of drugs
4 – Pharmaceutical products on sale on the dark web
Other sellers offer narcotics and prescription drugs, such as Xanax and other psychoactive drugs, such as the Dr. Feelgood site shown in the image.
Some sites are veritable underground pharmacies, selling HIV drugs, diet pills, insomnia medicine, etc. These sites sometimes offer batches of Covid vaccines.
Clandestine pharmacy of the dark web
Site offering vaccines against Covid 19
Yet another type is the Athletic Pharma site, which specialises in doping products, as its name suggests.
Website specialising in doping products
