Everyone knows by now how the deep web allows people from all over the world to buy and sell virtually anything. Drugs, weapons, credit card skimmers, and sensitive data are all very common on these underground marketplaces. But Croatian law enforcement believes some people are selling radium on the darknet, which would put a whole new spin on these markets. The Deep Web Is Chemically Potent There is a very big difference between selling weapons on the deep web , and vending chemical substances such as radium. Unlike your average AK-47, radium triggers various nuclear radiation alerts. Such a discovery was made in Croatia at the end of last month, as a border crossing station had its radiation alarms triggered. As it turns out, there were several boxes containing R-266 in a vehicle passing by the border crossing.. For those who are unaware of what this element does, it is a highly radioactive isomer of radium, which is a sub-element of uranium. The name uranium is more familiar to people, as it is used for all kinds of use cases, including nuclear weapons. The sale of radium is not entirely prohibited either, mind you, as distinct isomers are used for commercial and medical uses. But R-266 is not on that list, due to its high levels of radioactivity. The woman driving this car past the Croatian border crossing admitted to obtaining these radium isotopes through illegal means. To be more precise, she claims the R-266 is needed for a highly criticized form of medical treatment. While R-223 has been approved for medical use – despite a lot of protests – R-266 has never been – and probably never will be – approved for treatments. After investigators tried to uncover the source of the radium isotopes, they could draw only […]
