Drug trade moves from street to web

There are many others like Liam.

They're shopping for drugs on the so-called dark net, accessible not through traditional search engines but by way of special browsers and software that conceal IP addresses and make users harder to trace.

These drug markets are clandestine dispensaries of illicit and dangerous substances that are sold in exchange for cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin. For police, they pose a challenging front in the fight against the opioid crisis.

The Public Health Agency of Canada predicts the number of opioid-related overdose deaths for 2017 will surpass 4,000 once the figures are available from all provinces and territories. Fewer than 3,000 such deaths were reported a year earlier.

According to the RCMP's national headquarters and municipal police forces in cities such as Calgary, there are growing indications that the drug trade is increasingly moving to the dark web.

Liam, not his real name, opens a package containing crystal meth that he ordered on Dream Market. 'There's no dealer in Calgary that can match the huge selection that's available on the dark net,' he says. (CBC) Post image on Pinterest: Liam, not his real name, opens a package containing crystal meth that he ordered on Dream Market. 'There's no dealer in Calgary that can match the huge selection that's available on the dark net,' he says. (CBC)

Liam, not his real name, opens a package containing crystal meth that he ordered on Dream Market. 'There's no dealer in Calgary that can match the huge selection that's available on the dark net,' he says. (CBC)

There are signs that Canada has played a role in this shift. The country was at one point home to among the highest number of dealers globally in one dark web market, called AlphaBay, which was ultimately shuttered by police.

But like a never-ending game of whack-a-mole, law enforcement agencies around the world employ new tactics to stamp out anonymous markets, only to see new ones pop up.

• Dark web's largest illegal marketplace, founded by Canadian, shut down by U.S.

• Police ran 2nd dark web marketplace as sting to spot drug deals

Beginning with Silk Road, the first large-scale dark web drug market, in 2011, traffickers and users have been flocking to these sites in part because they offer a degree of anonymity not available on the street. Specialized software, such as the commonly used Tor, routes user data through myriad servers and nodes around the world, disguising IP addresses — and by extension, identities — and making it difficult for law enforcement to track.

Communication between buyers and sellers is generally scrambled with the help of encryption tools. And cryptocurrencies add another layer of protection for those seeking to duck police suspicion.

In Calgary, police say it's difficult to pinpoint how many drug users are flocking to the dark net — and how much they're buying — because the markets change constantly.