When police arrested Benjamin Bricker at his house in Lubbock, Texas in June, they found cocaine, a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, a shotgun, counterfeit currency, and indications of a modest drug-peddling operation. Those discoveries might not really have stood out by themselves, but what made Bricker’s case different is that investigators suspected he purchased drugs from the so-called dark web, to then sell for a profit on the street. Although academic research has found that much of the dark web drug trade is likely between vendors rather than sold directly to users, it’s not often that a case so starkly demonstrates the close relationship between marketplaces on the Tor network and more traditional drug crime. The investigation started like many other normal busts: the police gave a confidential informant an audio bug to wear, and $450 in marked funds to purchase cocaine from the suspect, according to a search warrant in Bricker’s case. The document was shared with Motherboard by Gabriel Monte, a reporter from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, which first reported the indictment against Bricker on Wednesday. Shortly after the undercover buy, the Lubbock Police Department, along with a SWAT team, searched Bricker’s residence, suspecting him of selling narcotics. According to the search warrant, the house contained four surveillance cameras, presumably to monitor the residence for any intruders. After investigators searched Bricker’s home, they forensically examined his mobile phone. “The forensic examination yielded web history and saved files indicating Benjamin Bricker was using the ‘dark web’ or ‘onion web’ to purchase cocaine from overseas suppliers,” the search warrant continued . (The documents says investigators found two iPhones, although it does not say what model or operating system either was running). “Affiant observed photographs of ‘dark web’ pages for advertised cocaine using bitcoin as payments. Affiant observed bitcoin drug ledgers in […]
