The Farmer's Market

This article is about online black marketplace. For the market where farmers sell directly to consumers, see Farmers' market.
The Farmer's Market

Screenshot of a section of The Farmer's Market
Type of site
 Online market
Commercial Yes
Launched c. 2006
Current status Inactive

The Farmer's Market, formerly Adamflowers,[1] was an online darknet marketplace operating on the Tor anonymity network since 2010. It was closed and several operators and users arrested in April 2012 as a result of Operation Adam Bomb, a two-year investigation led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Drug market

The online black marketplace was launched in or before 2006 as Adamflowers.[2][3] The site connected and mediated transactions for buyers and sellers of illicit substances through extensive use of Hushmail, an encrypted email service promoted as private and anonymous.[1][2] It moved operations to a hidden site on the Tor network in 2010, changed its name to The Farmer's Market, and greatly expanded its services to offer not just a venue for transactions but also customer service features more common to traditional eCommerce, such as guaranteed shipment and merchant screening.[1][4] Ars Technica described it as "like an Amazon for consumers of controlled substances."[5]

The Farmer's Market generated revenue through commissions based on the size of each purchase. An estimated 3000 people in all 50 U.S. states and 34 other countries made transactions and, according to DEA estimates, the site processed about $1 million between 2007 and 2009, and in 2011 the owners reaped $261,000 through PayPal alone.[2][4][5][6][7] The site allowed for several forms of payment including cash, PayPal, Western Union, Pecunix, and I-Golder. To blur the path between customers, the site, and sellers, additional parties known as "cash drops" were paid a fee to receive payment from customers and forward it in another payment form to one of multiple bank accounts or mailing addresses in Panama and elsewhere.[8][9] Among the drugs sold at the site were LSD, MDMA, mescaline, fentanyl, ketamine, DMT, hashish, and marijuana, some of which carry substance-specific criminal penalties, depending on country.[4][6][10]

Operation Adam Bomb

Over the course of two years the DEA conducted an investigation of The Farmer's Market in cooperation with local U.S. state and international authorities in the Netherlands, Colombia, and Scotland. The investigation used the codename Operation Adam Bomb, after the original name of the site, Adamflowers.[1][6]

In a public statement, the DEA claimed to have "infiltrated" the marketplace and to have successfully purchased a large quantity of LSD.[11][12] The indictment contained evidence in the form of hundreds of incriminating emails from 2006-2010, one of which included a comment that described Hushmail, the service they had been using to send the emails in the indictment, as "an encrypted and safe method of communication [which] would not produce e-mails to law enforcement officers."[9] Though Hushmail's complicity with police was not made explicit in the indictment, Wired, Forbes, and the Tor blog connected suggested it would be likely given previous privacy concerns about the site.[2][8][13][14][15][16] The undercover officer who had purchased LSD was party to a several of the included emails. The indictment also indicated cooperation by the U.S. Postal Service and included as evidence that particular defendants had received envelopes at a post office box.[9]

The investigation culminated in the April 2012 arrest of eight individuals connected to the site. The law enforcement agency's 66-page, 12-count indictment named lead defendant Marc Willems of the Netherlands and Michael Evron of the United States as the two who functioned as "organizer, supervisor, and manager" of the site.[2][11][17] The two were charged with "participating in a continuing criminal enterprise," five of the men were charged with distributing LSD in particular, and all eight with money laundering and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.[1][9][17][18] Seven other arrests were made of unnamed individuals, likely site users.[6]

By the end of 2014, seven of the eight people indicted had entered guilty pleas. The eighth died before the trial began.[19] In September 2014, Willems pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering charges, and was given a 10-year prison sentence that December.[20][21]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Schwartz, Mathew J. (17 April 2012). "Feds Bust 'Farmer's Market' for Online Drugs". Dark Reading. Information Week.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Zetter, Kim (16 April 2014). "8 Suspects Arrested in Online Drug Market Sting". Wired Threat Level. Conde Nast. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  3. ↑ Jablon, Robert (16 April 2012). "'Farmer's Market' International Online Drug Ring Busted, 15 Arrested". Huffington Post. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 Farnham, Alan (2012-04-19). "Internet 'Cloaking Device': Why Crooks and Cops Both Love TOR". Good Morning America. ABC News. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  5. 1 2 Goodin, Dan (16 April 2012). "Feds shutter online narcotics store that used TOR to hide its tracks". Ars Technica. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Couts, Andrew (17 April 2012). "Feds bust "Farmer's Market," an online illegal drug ring hidden by Tor". Digital Trends.
  7. ↑ "US busts online drugs ring Farmer's Market". BBC. 17 April 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  8. 1 2 "Trip report, October FBI conference". Tor blog. Torproject.org. 16 December 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "United States District Court for the Central District of California September 2011 Grand Jury (indictment)" (PDF). Wired. 29 November 2011.
  10. ↑ Whitcomb, Dan (16 April 2012). "U.S. busts global online drug market, arrests eight". Chicago Tribune.
  11. 1 2 "Creators and Operators of On-Line Narcotics Marketplace On The TOR Network Arrested On First Of Its Kind Federal Indictment Charging Drug Trafficking In 34 Countries And 50 States". The United States Attorney's Office Central District of California. Justice.gov. 16 April 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  12. ↑ Bowker, Art (14 November 2013). "Law Enforcement is on a Tor Offensive". SciTechConnect. Elsevier. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  13. ↑ Singel, Ryan (19 November 2007). "Hushmail to Warn users of Law Enforcement Backdoor". Wired Threat Level. Conde Nast. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  14. ↑ Single, Ryan (11 July 2007). "Encrypted E-Mail Company Hushmail Spills to Feds". Wired Thread Level. Conde Nast. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  15. ↑ Greenberg, Andy (6 August 2012). "Black Market Drug Site 'Silk Road' Booming: $22 Million In Annual Sales". Forbes. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  16. ↑ Franklin, Oliver (7 February 2013). "Unravelling the dark web". GQ. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  17. 1 2 Vaas, Lisa (23 April 2012). "Tor-hidden online narcotics store, 'The Farmer's Market', brought down in multinational sting". Naked Security. Sophos. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  18. ↑ Kim, Victoria (16 April 2012). "Feds bust online drug market in international sting". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 June 2014.
  19. ↑ "Creator Of On-line Drug Bazaar Pleads Guilty To Federal Drug, Money Laundering Charges For Distributing Narcotics Around The World". United States Attorney's Office Central District of California. 3 September 2014.
  20. ↑ "Founder Of Online Drugs Marketplace Gets 10-Year Sentence In L.A.". Santa Monica Mirror. 11 December 2014.
  21. ↑ Kim, Victoria (3 September 2014). "Dutch national pleads guilty to running online marketplace for drugs". Los Angeles Times.
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