Executive Summary
The Russian drug trade model of dead-dropping will continue to grow and expand to new countries as online platforms (“stores”) continue to expend resources to market themselves and as social conditions continue to worsen, making the drug trade more appealing to young individuals as consumers and facilitators.
The Russian drug market has changed from hand-to-hand sales to online markets and dead drops. This market relies on dark web anonymizing tools like Tor and encrypted messaging services like Telegram to support the manufacture, sales, and distribution of drugs. The most popular items include cannabis and synthetic drugs like mephedrone, alpha-PVP, and cathinones. Unlike Western drug trading and trafficking models, which sometimes rely on postal delivery, the Russian drug model revolves around dead-dropping.
Dead-dropping refers to the action of placing a package in a secure location for a third party to retrieve. This is a technique that organized crime has adapted from the espionage world. One example of this technique in action can be seen in FBI surveillance videos of Russian SVR illegals wrapped up in 2010 as part of Operation Ghostories.
In the narcotics world context, darknet platforms like Kraken, Mega, and OMG!OMG! host retail stores that distribute drug packages. These stores employ “kladmen” (couriers) to hide the packages in different operational sites. After receiving payment, the online stores send the drop locations of the packages to customers, who then retrieve their purchase. [source, source, source]
Images Sourced From: Andrew Kuznetsov
