Bring Awareness to Online Black-Markets!

Newspaper Article Analysis “Online drug sellers plead guilty”

    The internet is a vast environment in which several operations are run and among these does include the black-market. Victoria Kim writes this article in hope to bring awareness towards the black-market that still exists today. Marc Peter, a 45 year old Dutch National, admitted to court that he guilty to online drug dealing and money laundering. His plead revealed an entire online network that was being used to distribute drugs to several locations worldwide. Major distribution of illegal substances is a high felony and should be given priority too and be dealt with as soon as possible. Victoria Kim is helping the environment and making an attempt to bring forth an issue, that if dealt with and given enough priority, can definitely make this world a better and safer place to live.

     Marc Peter Willems was “doing business in every state and 45 foreign countries.” Here we have an online market which dealt illegal substances that was distributing to several countries for quite some time without any intelligence of the matter. “Millions of dollars’ worth of merchandise was traded.” This was indeed no playground game that was being played. It was a large scale international drug dealing network at hand, and all of it was being done behind the screen of someone’s computer screen. This kind of business can still be found on the internet today and is a problem which should be given upmost priority in stopping. Brian Doherty writes in his article “How Buying Drugs Online became safe, easy, and boring” about a large scale drug business called the “Silk Road” was shut down, but also about the evidence that shows that internet sales of illegal substances are still at large. However the Silk Road was a site much like Amazon or EBay where buyers can pick their product and it would come to their door in secret with a cover up. Over the years about 950,000 members used it and it was used to distribute about 1.2 million illegal substances worldwide. Crime at such a large scale is being run through the internet to millions and should be looked into deeply in order to put a stop too.

     It was said that this business was operated in “the shadowy corners of the web,” indicating that like this business, many others surely lay around in these corners as well. Among some of the substances that they sold were LSD, ecstasy, and marijuana. In Kenny Spotz article “What I’ve learned as an internet Drug Dealer” we can see a conceptual view of what it is like interacting with a real online drug dealer. He says that to find the site was quite easy as he just searched deep in the web, suggesting that anyone could do so, and found the selling of many commonly known illegal substances. She sent a request to talk to a drug dealer about her article and he responded. Throughout the conversation he learned more about him and his business and also some the background information that she could cover. He learned that he became a vendor on the site by means of past drug business and use and now he is selling it all over the internet. Recorded evidence of such people at large behind the safety of the internet is to be of big concern to all as drug business is a potential threat to society.

     Marc Peter was caught through a similar manner of how Kenny Spotz had come to write his article. One of his customers was an “under cover” Drug Enforcement Administration agent in Los Angeles. It is said that Williams was the originator of the network initially called Adam flowers which was launched in 2006. 2006-2014? That’s quite a long time for such a large scale crime to be taking place. Amongst him, five others pleaded guilty with more to plead later on as well. The wager was shown to be about 10 years in prison. With the circumstances of his crime, merely 10 years can be seen as too little of a punishment for the scale of his crime, however it is reasonable to others as well.

    The finding of such a large online drug distribution should help bring awareness as to what is really going on online. Such a crime should not be taking place in a public place such as the vast internet where anyone is able to access. Using clues and evidence, these websites and the people who are running them should be dealt with and prosecuted. The doing of so would help pave the path to a safer and healthier world. Sadly drugs are a big part of the society we live in today and with that comes many circumstances which must be dealt with. Marc Peters was one of many, but with further discoveries of websites such as his, we are taking big steps in making the world a better place to live.