Two Austrians Arrested For Drug Trafficking

An 18-year-old and a 19-year-old were arrested in Ried im Innkreis, Austria for ordering large quantities of narcotics from the dark web.

According to police information, the duo ordered drugs from the dark net. They consumed about half of the substances and sold the other half to customers. They advertised the narcotics on social media platforms, and sold to even underage persons, officials said. The suspects operated their business last year.

The dealers financed their own addictions, and also improved their livelihood with drug trafficking, according to police information. Their operation ended when the Main Customs Office in Frankfurt intercepted two narcotics packages on their way to the Post Office in Vienna.

Investigators said the duo purchased 200 grams of amphetamines, 16 grams of cocaine, and 170 ecstasy pills from the dark web. Additionally, when police questioned street dealers in Vienna who the suspects allegedly sold drugs to, they told law enforcement authorities that the duo must have purchased 1.5 kilograms of cannabis too.

The investigation led police not only to the arrest of the 18-year-old and the 19-year-old, but they also detained seven other suspects, who are believed to be the customers of the duo.

The increasing popularity and the anonymity of the dark web concerns law enforcement authorities in several affected countries. One of them is Sweden, who is constantly fighting against drug traffickers using the postal system. According to a local news outlet, Dagenssamhälle.se, the largest issue is that the postal law in the country does not help law enforcement in any way. The author of the article wrote that the law in Sweden aimed at helping the postal employees and the government in 1993 when the dark web did not exist.

“When the Postal Services Act was written in 1993, [drug dealers] were not selling drugs on the Internet, and the number of shipments of drugs sent by mail was small,” the author wrote. “Postal staff are involuntarily part of drug distribution.”

Postal employees in Northern-Sweden took part in a training that helped them in handling such situations.

“At the end of the year, the county administrative boards, along with the local police, begin testing and training at some key distribution points. For them [Postal workers] to feel safe there at work, they should be able to learn policies and procedures to help them handle these situations. And to help them learn to respond to times when someone picked up a [suspiscious] package. The administrative board of Norrbotten will be connected [in training] with much knowledge about that [Postal Services Act] section of the law,” a brief radio interview described the training.

The author of the article listed some fundamental changes to the postal law in Sweden:

“Increased cooperation between police, customs, and postal staff would reduce the staff’s concern about the threat situations they face today.”

“Law enforcement authorities should recognize ongoing violations.”

“Reduced availability of drugs via the internet.”

“The Increased risk of detection could discourage those who want to experiment with drugs.”

“Streamlining the discovery and classification of new substances of abuse.”