S Korean Crackdown Has Not Dampened Youth’s Thirst for Bitcoin-powered Drug Dealing

cryptonews.com:

Crypto-powered drug trading is still booming in South Korea – and a recent police crackdown on online bitcoin (BTC) and altcoin drug deals has done little to dampen the demand for web-traded narcotics.

Per Kuki News, Twitter and Telegram are still rife with posts from South Korean drug dealers seeking clients – and would-be buyers looking for dealers. Many dealers wrote that they could offer “nationwide delivery.”

Cryptonews.com also discovered a number of recent Korean-language Twitter posts making use of narcotics-related slang. Many of these directed users to Kakao chat rooms or Telegram channels. And many of these chat rooms and channels appeared to be populated with hundreds of younger South Korean users. These users variously wrote – anonymously – about their drug use and drug buying experiences.

Kuki News reported that in one of the Telegram channels it had visited, a user posted a photograph of several bags of narcotics and their own gloved hands. The accompanying caption read: “Time to go and make a few deliveries.”

The media outlet noted that while South Korean law enforcers have the power to pressure domestic chat apps such as Kakao to hand over details of users they suspect to be involved in drug trafficking, this is not the case for “overseas” platforms such as Telegram.

Drug buyers and dealers appear to be aware of this, and seem to have continued to use the platforms with impunity – in spite of a recent crackdown.

While police struggle to shut down social media activity like that described above, they have been more successful in tracking down drug payments made using BTC.

Officers have invested heavily in blockchain analytics software and other tools. They say these have helped them track down a number of