[HenryBemis]

Criminals will do crime. The thing that always buffles me is WHO buys heroin, cocaine, weed, etc. over the internet.. Aren't they scared that DHL, FedEx, USPS will scan/sniff the packages? Or they use "Drug delivery express"?

Or they buy online and they meet someone in a parking lot for the pick-up? Why not buy then and there then?

As we see in the movies, most drug trafficking is a drive-by thing.. is it not?

[myself248]

I don't think there are "criminals" as a type of person like "musicians", who are just compelled to do crime because there's an inner force that just makes their toe tap a certain way.

Maybe some small fraction, I guess.

But I think the majority of criminals are simply rational actors, who look at the incentives and the odds, assess them (sometimes wrongly), and do what seems sensible to achieve their goals. The goal is not "do crime", the goal is "make money" and the environment is structured such that crime makes money.

[SCHiM]

Having drugs sent to you is not proof that you bought them. I mean, it'd be too easy to blackmail someone if I could just send you a 'package' and then drop a tip @OurFriendsInBlue, no?

That said, if you keep getting busted with marching powder in your magazines, at some point people will stop accepting that excuse ;)

[ChrisKnott]

Having drugs sent to you is evidence you bought them. Maybe not conclusive evidence by itself, but certainly good evidence. Almost certainly there would be corroborating evidence such as drugs paraphernalia, financial transactions, positive blood test, internet history, etc

You are unlikely to get caught because you are unlikely to have the package intercepted. If it is, you should expect to be convicted.

[HenryBemis]

I was misunderstood, my bad, bad writing.

My question/wondering was on: why the hell would someone buy drugs online, and how to they accept the risk on consuming these when they arrive. Buying an iPhone cable online is a risk I can accept. Buying heroin online (I don't do drugs) it goes beyond me on the risk acceptance of such deed.

I get it that darkweb has a scoring system like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, but heroin? Cocaine? Weed?

It is not about "police can't charge you" it is about "who the hell is going to inject something that was bought on the darkweb in their veins??

What goes through their mind? I assume not much since these are people who buy heroin, online.. so that answers my question.

[SCHiM]

Well it's a direct market, customer service is king.

The sellers cannot really move their 'brand' from one market to another. An opportunist could reserve their username on another market, and users know that anyone could be behind that new account. They don't trust the name, only the reviews you have on your particular market.

What I want to say is that the reputation of their anonymous brand is worth something, because they can't take it somewhere in a hurry and takes time to build (if you build it legitimately, it always seems easy to cheat with a bot).

Reviews from other users, (who also have a visible reputation, to combat botting), are taken seriously. The markets themselves provide escrow, if you screw your users and don't have a high standing you're likely won't be receiving payment.

This incentivizes sellers to provide a high level of customer service.

"So, in order to attract customers in this high stakes and very competitive situation, you need the highest possible rating."[0]

"This may help to explain why drugs bought on the dark web tend to be much purer than drugs bought on the street. "[0]

[0]:https://unbabel.com/blog/customer-service-dark-web/

[s-lambert]

> The sellers cannot really move their 'brand' from one market to another. An opportunist could reserve their username on another market, and users know that anyone could be behind that new account. They don't trust the name, only the reviews you have on your particular market.

Sellers can move their brand across markets with a different username because they would still have the same PGP key. There's even a search engine to find the same vendor on multiple markets by looking them up by their PGP key.

[vkou]

> My question/wondering was on: why the hell would someone buy drugs online, and how to they accept the risk on consuming these when they arrive.

The alternative is buying them in person, where the dealer you have worked with for years may have been flipped last week.

And it's not like injecting something you bought from your dealer doesn't have similar risk factors. Why do you think overdoses have been skyrocketing over the past decade?

[cmrdporcupine]

The amount of fentanyl and similar compounds on the street sounds just awful now. I can't imagine buying an E in the club or wherever from a stranger in this day and age.

[shajznnckfke]

Low level purchasers don’t seem to be targeted in these busts. They are after the suppliers. The risk of buying from a darknet market is probably lower than buying from a local dealer, especially for a consumer who doesn’t have any connections. You could go looking for someone dealing on the street, but you won’t know if their stuff has five star reviews. Or you might just get mugged.

[frower1]

Not something I have firsthand experience of, but I believe that the sellers are rated in part on the quality of their delivery. It comes through regular post to the buyers door. But that’s no implication of crime so as a regular consumer it’s fairly safe.

Aside from that, the quality of Darknet drugs is significantly better than street drugs. The drugs people (used to) buy on the street have been through a lot of hands and there’s often little substance left at the end. Also, who you going to complain to? At least with a marketplace, sellers are looking for good ratings. It’s also a lot cheaper. I’ve heard nothing but good reports from people buying online.