A highly successful website that sells illegal drugs is challenging Australian police efforts to rein in its activities.

Police and customs officials are turning their attention to the online marketplace of illegal drugs, Silk Road, which is achieving an estimated $22 million a year in sales.

Silk Road - started by ''Dread Pirate Roberts'' in February last year - functions like a black market version of eBay, complete with vendor feedback, dispute resolution and sales promotions. Cocaine and ecstasy sell for a quarter of street prices in Australia while drugs such as cannabis and prescription medication are shipped worldwide.

Those who buy from Silk Road run the risk of Customs intercepting their package but many are happy to take that chance.
The Australian Federal Police recently arrested a Melbourne man for allegedly importing drugs into Australia via Silk Road, which operates in the so-called ''dark net'' or ''hidden web''. He was charged with 10 offences relating to the importation, trafficking and possession of narcotics and prohibited weapons, and is due to appear in Melbourne Magistrates Court on October 24.

In May, the federal police and Customs seized 120 kilograms of illicit substances imported via the postal system. They arrested 37 people.

The federal police are so concerned about the number of Australians using the site that they and Customs recently warned Silk Road users ''their identity will not always remain anonymous and when caught, they will be prosecuted''.

In June this year Customs foiled an attempt to smuggle nine packages of drugs into Australia within DVD cases.
But Nigel Phair, a former policeman turned computer security consultant who has just secured funding from the National Drug Law Enforcement Research Fund to look into the online drugs trade, says police need to make huge changes if they are to make a dent in the problem.

The Carnegie Mellon University's computer security professor, Nicolas Christin, spent more than six months on daily analysis of Silk Road for a research paper. He found use of the site had been growing and total revenue for its more than 500 sellers was about $US1.9 million ($1.8 million) a month - and $US143,000 a month went to the site's operators as commission.

Christin estimates Silk Road has up to 150,000 customers who bought 24,422 items from February 3 and July 24 this year. Cannabis is the most popular item.

Despite the anonymity of the service and the lack of legal recourse if you get ripped off, Christin found that for 96.5 per cent of items buyers gave a 5 out of 5 feedback rating.

The site seems to be increasingly popular with Australians, according to Monica Barratt, a research fellow at the National Drug Research Institute, who says it highlights the futility of law enforcement.

''Drug use and the demand for drug use isn't changing, so if for some reason Silk Road is suppressed or removed, there will just be another supply channel pop up,'' she says.

Users can access the service only using TOR software, which purports masks the user's location and details. Payment is made using the encrypted but volatile digital currency Bitcoin.

Phair says: ''There is a perception among many law enforcement and regulatory agencies that it is all too hard to conduct investigations involving TOR, so never start. There needs to be much more training of general investigators in conducting technical lines of inquiry, including the purchase of forensic discovery equipment if we are going to make a dent in this problem.''

But because drugs are delivered by post, anyone who uses Silk Road runs the risk of their parcel being intercepted.

It is not clear how many of the billions of parcels Australia Post handles are scanned and Christin found most sellers used techniques to make package inspection unlikely, such as vacuum sealing or ''professional looking'' envelopes with typed addresses.

It is not an offence to access the Silk Road but the federal police say anyone who imports border-controlled drugs faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and/or a $825,000 fine.

The acting manager in the customs cargo and maritime targeting branch, Alana Sullivan, says Customs monitors illicit e-commerce platforms including Silk Road and is aware that Australian sellers and buyers use it.

It is understood authorities have difficulty identifying the websites linked to seizures because intercepted parcels often do not have identifying features. Police rely on finding documentary or forensic evidence to link a seizure to a site, or an admission by the offender. The federal police do not have jurisdiction to investigate websites based overseas. They can refer matters to overseas counterparts but cannot compel them to act.

Source: TheAge.com.au