{"id":15311,"date":"2019-04-18T18:07:40","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T18:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=15311"},"modified":"2019-12-16T20:07:22","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T20:07:22","slug":"uk-accounts-for-largest-share-of-darknet-fentanyl-sales-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2019\/04\/uk-accounts-for-largest-share-of-darknet-fentanyl-sales-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Accounts For Largest Share Of Darknet Fentanyl Sales In Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oxford academics say sales of synthetic opioid drug are proliferating on illicit websites, with Britain a significant player<\/span><\/p>\n

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Drug paraphernalia seized by North Yorkshire police in a recent case. Photograph: North Yorkshire police\/PA<\/span><\/p>\n

The UK is the largest host of fentanyl sales on the darknet in Europe, with 1,000 trades being made in the last few months, research shows.<\/span><\/p>\n

Experts at the Oxford\u00a0Internet<\/a>\u00a0Institute said the UK was a \u201csignificant player\u201d in the trade of the synthetic opioid, a controlled class A drug that can be up to 100 times stronger than heroin. They warned that the drug was increasingly appearing on illicit websites.<\/span><\/p>\n

It follows\u00a0repeated warnings from the National Crime Agency<\/a>\u00a0for people to be \u201cvigilant about fentanyl to protect themselves and their loved ones\u201d, following at least 60 deaths linked to the substance.<\/span><\/p>\n

A team at the institute has been scraping the world\u2019s largest darknet marketplaces since April 2017. It found that the US accounts for almost 40% of global darknet trade, followed by Canada (15%) and Australia (12%). The largest seller in Europe is the UK (9%), followed by Germany, accounting for 5% of sales.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joss Wright, a research fellow at the institute, said: \u201cWhy is the UK a significant player? \u2026 It\u2019s because we have a relatively strong tech sector and users of the web, but also geographically the UK is quite well placed for trade coming from the US.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He said that since data gathering began in April, there had been 4,850 trades in the US and about 1,000 in the UK.<\/span><\/p>\n

Darknet<\/a>\u00a0markets or cryptomarkets have been operating since the launch of Silk Road in February 2011. On the darknet, those selling substances are able to remain relatively anonymous as their IP addresses are masked. People buy drugs using the online currency bitcoin.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark Graham, a professor of internet geography at the institute, said: \u201cMany of the sellers in places like the US, Canada, and western Europe are likely intermediaries rather than producers themselves. While darknet marketplaces can, in theory, be accessed from anywhere in the world, our data suggests that there is often a local geography of trading. In other words, buyers tend to buy from domestic rather than international sellers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n