Image Credit: ADOBE STOCK
May 31, 2022 - 12:30 PM
A cryptocurrency-funded drug trafficking ring on the dark web has been busted following an undercover investigation by the B.C. RCMP Federal Serious and Organized Crime unit.
Three Vancouver Island men are facing several charges related to the trafficking of a large variety of street-level drugs and will appear in Nanaimo provincial court, June 7, according to an RCMP media release.
In early 2019, the serious crimes unit’s cybercrime operations group initiated an online undercover investigation into an international dark web organized crime group with the vendor name AlwaysOverweight.
AlwaysOverweight used cryptocurrency and encrypted messaging applications to cover its tracks while anonymously trafficking a large variety of drugs including methamphetamine, oxycodone, cocaine, MDMA, Xanax and what was advertised as heroin but was in fact the deadlier opioid fentanyl that was mixed with other cutting agents, RCMP said.
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The serious crime unit was able to penetrate the criminal group’s digital barriers and identified a Nanaimo address as being the dark web vendor’s physical location, using newer investigative techniques along with conventional methodologies, RCMP said.
On February 4, 2020, the crime unit arrested Kien Trung Pham, Kerry Chang and Gordon Brooks, while also executing search warrants on two Nanaimo residences, leading to the seizure of a variety of drugs, packaging, mailing envelopes, documents, cash, computers and data storage devices.
The men are facing a variety of drug trafficking and possession charges.
“This is a great example of our ability to quickly adapt and adjust our investigative techniques to meet the rapidly evolving and dynamic world of cybercrime,” B.C RCMP Federal Policing Supt. Richard Bergevin said in the release.
“The dark web is just one of the tools that organized crime uses to avoid detection, and so police need to continuously evolve their technical capabilities to stem the flow of toxic drugs into our communities.”
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The dark web can be described as the internet’s third hidden layer below the deep web, and the familiar open web, RCMP said. It is accessed through special Internet Protocol (IP) anonymizing browsers such as the Tor Browser, and other similar encryption-enabled browsers that hide the user’s digital footprint, making it virtually impossible to pinpoint the source user.
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