18 Year Old Charged for Buying Drugs and Submachine Gun on the Darknet
At the heart of the internet, an 18-year-old was tempted to purchase illicit drugs and a submachine gun. This caught the attention of the authorities to put him behind bars. According to the criminal proceedings read at the court in Bamberg, the native of Hassfurt made his way into the online black market with the intention to purchase fake credit cards, bank statements, ecstasy pills, and guns which included a submachine gun. The crime seems to outweigh him considering his age, but authorities have promised to go by the law to subject him to its demand.
According to a report, the young man whose name has been withheld browsed through a Darknet marketplace on June 2017 and after checking on many weapon sellers, landed on an Australian vendor. He, therefore, made an order for a MAC-11 gun. The information reaching us confirms that the young man paid 1,700 dollars for the weapon and expected it to be sent to an address he provided.
From the report gathered, the young man delivered himself to the police unknowingly from the first day he placed the order on the Darknet. He landed on a disguised Australian police officer on the platform mistaking him for a vendor. The Australian investigator, therefore, relayed the information to the German police who followed him to a parking lot in Hassfurt where he was waiting for the gun to be delivered. It has been confirmed that the 18-year-old went to the parking lot for his parcel on August 2017.
It is clearly defined in the German constitution, and it is very understandable that the law strictly prohibits individuals from possessing unlicensed firearms and also illegal importation of weapons. Germany as a country is very familiar with gun attacks of which the source of the guns used by these attackers has been suspected to be from the Darknet. A way the authorities track the traffickers is by setting up forums to trap people and to use the information obtained from them as a navigator to locate their whereabouts. An Undercover officer recently arrested a man from Germany for buying a gun on the Darknet.
After the arrest of the 18-year-old, authorities launched an intense search into his home. The outcome of the search revealed that he is much more grounded in the darknet sales as fake Czech identity cards and some amount of money in Euros were discovered. A further search led to the seizure of 771 tablets of ecstasy weighing 240 grams. All of these are suspected to have been bought through the Darknet marketplaces. Among the drugs discovered were cocaine and some other substances.
The motive behind the purchase of these substances from the darknet was that he found them cheaper and thought that he could make enough profit from their sales on the street. He bought the drugs for 1,000 Euros.
Among the charges are fraudulent activities. With his techniques and the help of some accomplices, he was able to get access to foreign accounts and illegally withdraw money. Posing as a network operator, he was able to get access to people’s password and defrauded them. He also bought a pit-bike for 2,700 euros online and used it for his criminal activity. Authorities have not given up yet as they seek to go after the remaining ones who use the Darknet as a shield to go against the law.
From the fact that German law does not tolerate all the crimes against the young man, he will go to jail if found guilty and also bear the cost of the proceedings.
The last decade has witnessed an unprecedented growth in the number of users on the Darknet. The growing concern made Europol launch these raids, and fought against some of the popular Darknet marketplaces; however, the users continue to increase. Germany has been said to be one of many European countries with Darknet users. In respect to this, authorities are ensuring that any illegal engagement on the Darknet is fairly controlled and regulated by the law.