Students used bitcoins to buy drugs, mask trail

The chance arrest of three drug peddlers on Wednesday has revealed many unknown aspects of the narcotics trade: that bitcoins are being used to buy drugs from a dark site is foxing Bengaluru police. Faced with the first such online drug racket, they are now looking at the prospect of tracking the money trail of a virtual currency, and special software used to access websites. Until now, the murky business involved straight transactions in traditional currency. They are now trying to work out the magnitude of the trade, and how many more are using the internet to buy drugs. The three students had purchased the banned Ecstasy pills from a dark website, which were delivered by courier. They were selling them to college students. Cops are also looking at the technical aspect: buying drugs online requires special software, which bounces signals from the browser using their network. This prevents agencies looking for information from finding the browsing data. The IP address is effectively hidden. Only this software can give the browser access to a blocked or dark site. A buyer who accesses the dark site needs bitcoins to complete any transaction. Bitcoins allow the buyer to pay up without revealing identity, but it is not entirely anonymous. To be on the safe side, the buyer uses mixed services to mask the transfer of bitcoins into his wallet. The most common way coins can be traced back to the buyer's real identity is through the exchange from where they were bought, because the exchanges often demand proof of identity .Some sites require further authentication before they allow the buyer to make a purchase. "The students may find the internet more secure. Also, buying from an agent in the city could be costlier as they were dealers rather than users," said police officers investigating the case. -TOI