WASHINGTON -- If you see a green and purple globe on your child’s desktop or smart phone, you should probably start asking some serious questions.
That green and purple globe is a specialized browser for accessing the dark web, which is a secret part of the internet where drug marketplaces flourish.
Buying drugs on the browser is easy.
Gillian Ainsworth knows the consequences could be deadly.
Her son, Ryan Ainsworth, lost his life stunningly young. He was just 13 years old when he died of a drug overdose.
The drug that killed him was a synthetic opioid bought by another teenager off the dark web.
“Ryan was kind, accepting, wicked smart, daring and charismatic, a boy whose beautiful smile, twinkle in his eye, and contagious laughter brought joy to everyone he met,” Ainsworth wrote to WUSA9 in an email. “He was only 13 years old when he passed away after overdosing on a synthetic opioid, U-47700, that had been purchased on the dark web.”
“They know about the online websites,” said Jared Der-Yeghiayan, an agent with Homeland Security Investigations. “It’s scary to see that they’re comfortable with it."
Der-Yeghiayan took WUSA9 on a tour of the dark web.
“You look for this globe, the green globe, you find that in your applications or programs,” he said.
Seconds later, Der-Yeghiayan showed WUSA9 a dark web marketplace with a list of categories ranging from prostitution to fraud to drugs.
The dark web is a hidden part of the internet where criminals thrive.
Think of the internet like an iceberg, only a small amount is wide open.
The rest is password protected, that’s called the deep web. Within that is the dark web, which is only accessible through a special browser.
Here's how the browsers work:
Every computer on a network has a unique code called an IP address. It’s how law enforcement follows computer activity on the internet.
A dark web browser throws law enforcement off the trail by bouncing that code off computers around the world, so tracking becomes nearly impossible. Criminals creeping around in the dark web reap the benefits.
Der-Yeghiayan said anyone can log into the browser, search for “drug marketplaces” on the dark web, and with a few clicks, buy an illicit product.
Packages shipped through the postal service come to the U.S. through New York, Chicago, L.A., San Francisco or Miami.
Then, they land on the doorstep, just like a purchase from Amazon or eBay.
It’s shockingly normal. Like those legitimate sites, dealers on the dark web expect a good review and even write thank you notes.
“In this instance, this vender had fairly good ratings,” Der-Yeghiayan said. “In other ratings, you’ll get great quality.”
Demand is growing due to the increasing use of anonymous, cyber money like bitcoin. The promise of invisibility draws millions of users, but Der-Yeghiayan said it’s not a guarantee.
He personally infiltrated and helped unmask the people behind Silk Road, an enormous drug marketplace operating on the dark web. The 2013 case marked law enforcement’s first large-scale dark web drug marketplace takedown.
The mastermind behind the site, Ross Ulbricht, received a life sentence in federal prison. In December 2017, Ulbricht petitioned the Supreme Court to hear his case.
At least one teenager died after ingesting drugs bought off Silk Road. Der-Yeghiayan has seen more teenagers lured to dark web marketplaces, looking for drugs to buy for themselves and to sell.
Media reports from Australia, the United Kingdom and the U.S. show that the problem spans the globe and isn’t slowing down.
In 2017, federal authorities took down an enormous market called AlphaBay, the same kind of drug vendor website that sold the drugs that eventually killed Ryan Ainsworth.
The trend has touched the D.C. area as well.
Cami Corcoran, Sabrina Martin and Carmen Molina Acosta are student journalists at Walt Whitman High School in Montgomery County, Md. For a recent article, Cami and Sabrina explored drug culture. Carmen was their editor.
“Especially regarding the dealers, we wanted to demonstrate that a lot of these kids that are dealing are not your typical kind of like stoner personas,” Sabrina said.
She was shocked when, during an interview with a classmate, he showed her the marketplace.
“And then I’m sitting at a table with my classmate, who happens to be a dealer, and he’s like ‘yeah I also order pounds of marijuana from the dark web,’”’ she said. “I had never heard of it."
Neither had school administrators like Walt Whitman’s Principal Dr. Alan Goodwin.
“I hadn’t really thought about it. I usually have dealt on the more ordinary ways they obtain their drugs,” Goodwin said.
“When we interviewed Dr. Goodwin about it, he had no idea. So how can administration and law enforcement fight it if they don't even know it exists,” said Carmen.
A spokesman for Montgomery County Public Schools pointed out students can’t download the browser, and can’t access the website from a school computer.
Carmen said the goal of the article was to shine a light on the dark web.
“I think it's kind of our role as high school journalists to ask those questions and to probe in corners that administrations and maybe law enforcement and other newspapers maybe can't see,” she said.
