Drug crimes in Ottawa don't just involve people meeting up to exchange money and illegal substances. It is very possible for crimes to be committed in cyberspace, as the transactions are brokered over the Internet.
Take, for example, a black-market website known as the Silk Road. It could be reached all over the world, and looked surprisingly like any other online store. When active, there were categories for different types of drugs, listings that displayed the prices and the option to purchase remotely. Yes, the man who ran the site was in the United States, in California, but the drugs could be purchased from Canada, England, Australia or any other country in the world.
Overall, billions of dollars changed hands thanks to this one website. It was an incredible feat, the likes of which had never been seen before.
Back in 2013, the authorities in the United States shut the site down. Though it sounds like the person running it should have been an incredible businessman, he was actually just a 29-year-old guy who used free WiFi at coffee shops and libraries to run the site.
Still, this story shows just how the world has changed. With the rise of the Internet, drug charges could stem from online interactions all over Canada. This site may be gone, but the general process of selling drugs online can still continue—on social media sites, for instance.
Even when people never meet up in person, these exchanges could lead to serious charges, and it is very important for those facing the charges to know what legal options they have and what the court will have to prove—as finding solid proof online can be tricky.
Source: Top Info Post, "FBI Arrests 29 Year Old Mastermind Of Billion Dollar Internet Drug Blackmarket," accessed Dec. 11, 2015
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