For several years now, online communities have become a virtual meeting place to make new friends or share interests. However there is one online community that is hidden, yet full of people seeking all kinds of illegal things at any time of the day or night. This is nothing less than a ‘Silk Road’ for those who sell illegal materials and substances with impunity. The trading website seems not to exist when one first looks for it with a search engine, but by downloading some free software one can become an anonymous surfer and buy absolutely anything, since the currency used is the bitcoin, electronic currency which leaves no trace. On this site one can buy anything from counterfeit clothes, medicines, performance-enhancing drugs, false passports and pornographic material right up to any kinds of drugs in unlimited quantities. It is the drug supply that has grown exponentially since the world press first published the news. In fact, in six months the number of sellers has more than doubled, and according to sources from the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh the volume of trade during the first half of the year was EUR 1.5 million per month. The greatest risk faced is that organised crime will use these new channels in EU countries. Indeed, in Russia, the mafias are taking on IT graduates to also sell their goods in the virtual world, which is more real than one might think. Deliveries take place under cover and the drugs are vacuum-packed to evade any inspections. Given that: — the European Commission is highly sensitive to matters of cyber security;

— the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) is the EU’s defence against crimes committed on the Internet;

Can the Commission state whether it is aware of the trend described and what measures the European Union, through the EC3, intends to implement to robustly combat this illegal situation? How does the Commission intend to promote information campaigns about the losses these methods cause to the tax system in every country? Above all, in regard to illegal substances, does it intend to inform the population and young people about the catastrophic and harmful effects that taking drugs has on their bodies and how this also has serious repercussions in adult life?