Puff-Puff (or Khapochkameans a short drag joint or cigarette) is a young, beautiful (as far as I can tell from behind her mask) woman in her mid-twenties and, in her own words, “a drug courier from Russia, blogger and simply the idol of millions.” he entered drug dealing She works as a side hustle while completing her education and now blogs about her lifestyle on her Telegram channel Courier in a Skirt, where she chats with fans and answers their questions.

“Honestly, (the idea to start a blog) was given to me by someone at Telegram,” he said. “I thought and realized that I really had something to tell people; It’s also about talking openly about the part of my life that I can’t discuss with my family and friends. After all, it is better to ask for advice on how to bake the best cookies in a conversation with like-minded people, and not from your mother, right?

His business begins by collecting bulk shipments from anonymous contacts, then weighs them into smaller packages and stores them around the city for his customers.

“Two years ago I got a job at a new store,” he recalled. “I was assigned a main stash, the produce was located in the forest, not far from the main road. I calmly collected it and placed it inside a fake fire extinguisher, the kind you can find on AliExpress. When I saw a patrol car, I was driving away as if nothing had happened. They stopped me, checked my documents and asked if I was carrying anything illegal. I said no, of course, but they decided to inspect my car anyway. Naturally, they checked the trunk but did not touch the fire extinguisher. They wished me a safe journey and allowed me to continue on my way.”

Just like the USA, Russia is waging a war on drugs. In some prison camps, up to 80% of the inhabitants are kept under surveillance. Article 228 This article of the Criminal Code, which prohibits some narcotics, has been called the “people’s law” because it incarcerates more citizens than any other, and many serve sentences of more than ten years for first-time crimes. Prison conditions are harsh; torture very common. Yet more than 10,000 Russians continue to die from drug overdoses every yeara higher toll doubled Since 2019.

This failure to cope is partly due to the changing nature of the pharmaceutical market. A. new report He’s been investigating this new underworld run by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, where I serve as an investigator, and it may give us a clue as to where the worldwide drug scene is going next.

Buying drugs in Russia was like anywhere else in the 90s and 2000s. You need to visit a specific area (Rome gypsy villages They replaced the “hood” with open-air drug markets) stopping to score points or ask a friend who might or might not be working with the cops to get the law off their backs. Like their American counterparts, Russian police operate on a quota system and are forced to meet demands. common tactic It was about capturing a low-level dealer or user and cornering them until they handed over their friends. They also sell in turn their We are suppliers until sooner or later everyone works for The Man. You never know if you’re ready for a sting.

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Now everything has become digital. Selling drugs online is far from new; Actually first thing What was bought and sold on the Internet was like a bag of weed; No country has embraced e-shopping for their preferred shopping more wholeheartedly than the Russians. US government predictions In 2021, 80% of all dark web cryptocurrency transactions occurred through Hydra, Russia’s then-reigning cyber cartel, he said.

Much of Hydra’s interface would look familiar to anyone who has used the dark web marketplace Silk Road or their countless fake clones: you can browse forums and customer reviews to check which pills and powders will knock your socks off and which will leave you feeling worse than Uma Thurman.pulp Fiction.”

But what made Hydra unique was not only its monopoly, but also its distribution system, which revolved around hiding items in secluded hiding spots, like the cocaine-dealing Easter Bunny or Puff-Puff.

“In other countries, illegal online drug markets use the mail to send drugs. Mail in Russia is extremely slow and unreliable, so local sellers have come up with a new, more efficient delivery method,” explained sociologist Alex Knorre.

“It’s extremely easy,” Knorre continued. “You can order online at any time, chances are there are a lot of drugs in your city, and you can pay for it using a credit card or QIWI (a common ATM-like way of sending cash). Once payment is made, you immediately receive the coordinates to pick up the package and pick it up somewhere sufficient.”

dark web so removed The need to be with those who wear Addidas gopniks (bandits.) Doesn’t the plug turn on their phones? No problem; Anyone with a laptop and a Wi-Fi connection can buy or sell. Anonymity of everyone involved is encrypted and guaranteed TOR browser. Developed by the US Navy to protect their communications, the browser’s code was made public in the mid-2000s, and TOR became a nonprofit organization aimed at helping activists in authoritarian regimes bypass censorship. It also enabled the dark web and all its hackers, pedophiles and drug dealers to be active.

Russia second largest The country accounts for 15% of all traffic in the world based on TOR usage. Even though the Kremlin tried to block the service, results were achieved mixed At best – and nowadays TOR is less necessary since there are many mirrors in the transparent network. Between dead drops and TOR, this meant that, unlike traditional drug gangs, no one actually had to meet face to face; This protected the operation from undercover missions, renegades and stool pigeons.

Then tastes change. Since the late 80s, the favorite forbidden fool of Russians has long been heroinComing from Afghanistan via Tajikistan, a mountainous, impoverished Central Asian country that is a smuggling route. Inspected by organized crime and corrupt security chiefs. While the Taliban puts pressure on the sector, it threatens to replace this market with synthetic products in Europe. Risking a fentanyl crisis like the one the US is currently struggling with.

Although opioids are still abundant for now, their popularity has been overtaken by synthetic stimulants; mainly mephedronea fast cathinone cooked with raw materials in secret laboratories welding from China. Hydra has played no small part in this trend by selling do-it-yourself medicine-making kits.

A similar event is happening in America. recently Reuters investigation It showed how easy it was to buy enough precursors (chemicals used to make synthetics) to produce three million fentanyl tablets available online from unscrupulous Chinese companies for just $3,600 worth of Bitcoin. The packages passed through customs without any problems and were delivered directly to mailboxes in New York, New Jersey and Mexico City. Although Reuters reporters discarded the fentanyl precursors, it is not difficult to combine them using a simplified synthesis known as the Gupta method, which one Mexican drug trafficker described as being as easy as “making chicken soup.”

This is just one of countless examples synthetics It is the wave of the future: anyone cyber-savvy enough can acquire equipment and supplies that are easier to hide and can withstand local weather conditions better than coca crops or poppy cultivation, effectively democratizing the drug trade. away Mafia-like unions.

The more a country invests in border security, the more attractive it becomes to traffickers because greater risks come with greater rewards. However, small-scale producers already within a country’s borders can saturate the market. The price of cocaine and mephedrone, which are sold for approximately $100 per gram in Hydra greedy 13 dollars. If the aim of law enforcement is to deter consumption by coercing sellers increase prices are lagging behind.

Putting pressure on the frontrunners is a game of Whac-A-Mole. If the precursors are banned (a difficult proposition anyway, as they are widely used in legal products like perfume), Chinese manufacturers will sell them frontprecursors: even more obscure, unregulated chemicals. And if Beijing cleans up its chemical industry, things could go another way. Indiaa place or perhaps another country where corruption may be even more prevalent.

All of the above doesn’t mean there weren’t (big) victories. In April 2022, the German federal police took action on information they received from their American counterparts. captured The servers hosting Hydra replaced its banner with their logo and received $25 million in Bitcoin. There was a moment of confusion. At first, buyers hoped that the platform would revive and somehow re-emerge. There may be new platforms scammers or police stings. There was a brief resurgence in hand-to-hand sales, but mostly in small towns and rural areas. Customers was kidnapped Hydra’s convenience and stability.

Then slowly, replacements MEGA began to emerge with names such as WayAway, OMG!, Solaris, BlackSprut and Kraken; Many of these were staffed by Hydra veterans. A digital turf war has broken out over Hydra’s displaced customers. But unlike Mexico’s drug war, there were no headless corpses hanging from bridges. Wars were fought instead fought with hackers, data breaches, and server shutdowns.

So at least this is an improvement. I wish more teardrop tattooed cartel enforcers knew how to code. But basically the essence of the problem still remains. While the Kremlin and the White House rarely see eye to eye, for now both are maintaining the status quo on the war on drugs.

“(Legalization) will happen when people stop drinking vodka,” Puff-Puff said. “This, by the way, is not financially profitable for those who run the whole thing. It would be enough to decriminalize marijuana or repeal laws that put people in prison for ten years for six grams of bud. But these are political things that I try not to get involved in.”