Zhejiang anti-drug police unveil the marijuana trade hidden in the “Dark Web”

Seller: "Where is it sent to?"

Buyer: "Zhejiang."

Seller: "If you don't post, things will be gone in the past."

Seller: "People are gone..."

This is a conversation between cannabis buyers and sellers on a foreign "dark web".

Dark Web, the English name is DarkWeb, refers to a special network that can only be accessed through special software, authorization, or special settings on the computer, and cannot be found on popular search engines.

How did Zhejiang become the mysterious "Bermuda" that disappeared as soon as marijuana came? Recently, the reporter talked to the anti-drug police of the Jinhua Public Security and heard them tell the story of the Jinhua police's investigation of drug-related crimes on the "dark web" and related portals in the past two years.

Xiao Gao's "planting base"

First discovered the use of "dark web" to trade marijuana

In the second half of 2018, Zhejiang Jinhua police arrested a drug dealer, Yan, in Nanchang, Jiangxi. Originally, this "Er Dao dealer" was not an "important role", but the Jinhua police found clues to using the "dark web" to sell marijuana for the first time in him.

There are many "dark web" black markets, and their operating model is similar to that of Internet shopping malls. Most of the black markets use third-party payment methods to ensure the safety of sellers, buyers and websites. The communication between buyers and sellers mostly uses overseas social software, which has the function of "burning after reading".

"Yan, it is through an overseas social software to contact his family to buy and sell." Police officer Dong of the Jiangnan Branch Anti-drug Brigade of the Jinhua City Public Security Bureau is one of the policemen who organized the case.

The clues of the "dark web" were exposed to the sight of the Jinhua police. The police found that most people who trade on the "dark web" in China have relatively high levels of education, and many of them are international students or have work experience abroad.

Through the "dark web", buyers and sellers can enter groups formed on some foreign social software. There are generally two trading methods: one is the free trading mode within the group, and the other is the group owner guarantee mode.

"Since transactions are conducted through the'dark web', these two modes are not easy to trace the home. So we changed the mode and wanted to use big data to decentralize the tracing." Police officer Dong introduced, Zhejiang Anti-drug Intelligence Analysis System, It was researched and developed by Police Officer Ma of the Jinhua Anti-drug Detachment. Big data tracking is also one of Jinhua's important anti-drug technologies.

One group after another surfaced

In Guitu Sanku, the general drug dealers have more than one home, which means that Yan's next home may have other "homes". If supported by big data, will there be more clues? "In the beginning, we just built a big data model with the mentality of giving it a try." Officer Ma said, but the idea came true.

There are more and more relevant data about marijuana cases, and clues are woven into web after web like spider silk. In 2019 alone, Jinhua police sent more than 500 relevant clues to police across the country. More than 300 marijuana users were cracked down in the province, and 19 marijuana cultivation sites were also cracked down.

During the crackdown, the experience of many criminal suspects was embarrassing.

Xiao Gao, in his early 20s, is from Baoding, Hebei. He has studied in Australia for 3 years. At the beginning of 2019, after Xiao Gao returned to China, he didn't work long enough to start a cannabis business.

He rented a two-bedroom and one-living house in Baoding and purchased cannabis seeds from abroad through the "dark web". In one of the rooms, he became a "botanist", not only smoking by himself, but also selling through the dark web. , And settle with Bitcoin. When the Jinhua police caught him, the third batch of marijuana was about to mature...

There is a word, "Different routes lead to the same return." Old Tang, who was completely opposite to Xiao Gao's life path, did not expect to eventually embark on the road of growing and selling cannabis.

Tang, who has only a primary school education, has been working at home as an adult. After that, I went to work in Guangzhou and Shenzhen and came into contact with cannabis circles by chance. He felt that it was profitable, so he began to learn English by himself.

At the beginning of 2018, Lao Tang started trying to grow cannabis at home. After several failures, Lao Tang figured out the planting skills and quickly expanded the scale to plant large areas on the second and third floors of his self-built house. Old Tang's planting techniques are even better than the "master" in some foreign forums. He no longer needs to buy hemp seeds, but he can grow hemp plants by himself.

"On a foreign social software software, Old Tang communicated with'customers' throughout the whole process in English, introducing and selling the hemp he cultivated." Police Officer Ma introduced that Tang claimed to have good skills and a "single" of less than 100 grams. He never Pick up.

The police repeatedly emphasized: Cannabis is a drug

With the support of the big data model, from 2019 to the end of 2020, Jinhua police investigated and dealt with 435 drug suspects who smoked marijuana, destroyed 32 marijuana plantations, seized more than 300 kilograms of marijuana, and investigated and dealt with the production of new psychoactive substances. There were 2 dens, 2 guns were seized, more than 50 channels used to sell drugs across the country were cut off, and 3 money laundering cases were broken.

In 2020, Zhejiang published the "White Paper on Anti-drugs", which contains a set of data that is shocking: In 2019, a total of 670 cannabis users were investigated and dealt with in the province, accounting for 8.8% of the newly discovered drug users in the province. Cannabis users are mainly young people, and the groups involved have spread from groups such as foreign students and returnees to ordinary young groups. Exploring the reasons for smoking cannabis is more or less affected by the cannabis subculture caused by the legalization of cannabis in certain countries.

In fact, there are many harms of marijuana. The damage to the body caused by smoking marijuana is multifaceted, such as neurological disorders, anxiety, depression, paranoia, delusions, and suicidal impulses. Earlier, a marijuana smoker in Jiaxing suffered from mental illness and was admitted to a mental hospital; a marijuana smoker in Ningbo committed suicide many times...

The Jinhua anti-drug police repeatedly reminded not to think of marijuana as a social item or a "tool" for relaxation. Cannabis, like opium, heroin, methamphetamine (meth), morphine, cocaine and other narcotic drugs and psychotropic drugs, belongs to the scope of drugs. Article 347 of my country's Criminal Law stipulates that no matter how large the number of smuggling, trafficking, transportation, or manufacturing of drugs, they should be investigated for criminal responsibility and be punished.