Policing Cryptomarkets and the Digital War on Drugs

The chapter first describes the new trends and old continuities between the conventional war on drugs and its digital variant, with an emphasis on policing and surveillance. Legal tactics are analysed next, followed by a discussion of some of the new forms of surveillance that state authorities are implementing to extend control over the dark web. The chapter concludes with a critical discussion emphasising why these developments, led by the United States, are especially problematic by classifying dark web activity as organised criminal conspiracies that conflate a diverse and unrelated range of criminal activity with the illicit drugs trade.