Inside the Deep Web Drug Lab

+

+

Inside the Deep Web Drug Lab

+

+
+

+

Welcome to DoctorX’s Barcelona lab, where the drugs you bought online are tested for safety and purity. No questions asked.

+

+
+

+

+

Standing at a table in a chemistry lab in Barcelona, Cristina Gil Lladanosa + tears open a silver, smell-proof protective envelope. She slides out a + transparent bag full of crystals. Around her, machines whir and hum, and + other researchers mill around in long, white coats.

+

She is holding the lab’s latest delivery of a drug bought from the “deep + web,” the clandestine corner of the internet that isn’t reachable by normal + search engines, and is home to some sites that require special software + to access. Labeled as MDMA (the street + term is ecstasy), this sample has been shipped from Canada. Lladanosa and + her colleague Iván Fornís Espinosa have also received drugs, anonymously, + from people in China, Australia, Europe and the United States.

+

“Here we have speed, MDMA, cocaine, pills,” Lladanosa says, pointing to + vials full of red, green, blue and clear solutions sitting in labeled boxes.

+

Cristina Gil Lladanosa, at the Barcelona testing lab | photo by Joan Bardeletti

+

Since 2011, with the launch of Silk Road, anybody has been able to safely buy illegal + drugs from the deep web and have them delivered to their door. Though the + FBI shut down that black market in October 2013, other outlets have emerged + to fill its role. For the last 10 months the lab at which Lladanosa and + Espinosa work has offered a paid testing service of those drugs. By sending + in samples for analysis, users can know exactly what it is they are buying, + and make a more informed decision about whether to ingest the substance. + The group, called Energy Control, + which has being running “harm reduction” programs since 1999, is the first + to run a testing service explicitly geared towards verifying those purchases + from the deep web.

+

Before joining Energy Control, Lladanosa briefly worked at a pharmacy, + whereas Espinosa spent 14 years doing drug analysis. Working at Energy + Control is “more gratifying,” and “rewarding” than her previous jobs, Lladanosa + told me. They also receive help from a group of volunteers, made up of + a mixture of “squatters,” as Espinosa put it, and medical students, who + prepare the samples for testing.

+

After weighing out the crystals, aggressively mixing it with methanol + until dissolved, and delicately pouring the liquid into a tiny brown bottle, + Lladanosa, a petite woman who is nearly engulfed by her lab coat, is now + ready to test the sample. She loads a series of three trays on top of a + large white appliance sitting on a table, called a gas chromatograph (GC). + A jungle of thick pipes hang from the lab’s ceiling behind it.

+

+

“Chromatography separates all the substances,” Lladanosa says as she loads + the machine with an array of drugs sent from the deep web and local Spanish + users. It can tell whether a sample is pure or contaminated, and if the + latter, with what.

+

Rushes of hot air blow across the desk as the gas chromatograph blasts + the sample at 280 degrees Celsius. Thirty minutes later the machine’s robotic + arm automatically moves over to grip another bottle. The machine will continue + cranking through the 150 samples in the trays for most of the work week.

+

To get the drugs to Barcelona, a user mails at least 10 milligrams of + a substance to the offices of the Asociación Bienestar y Desarrollo, the + non-government organization that oversees Energy Control. The sample then + gets delivered to the testing service’s laboratory, at the Barcelona Biomedical + Research Park, a futuristic, seven story building sitting metres away from + the beach. Energy Control borrows its lab space from a biomedical research + group for free.

+

The tests cost 50 Euro per sample. Users pay, not surprisingly, with Bitcoin. + In the post announcing Energy Control’s service on the deep web, the group + promised that “All profits of this service are set aside of maintenance + of this project.”

+

About a week after testing, those results are sent in a PDF to an email + address provided by the anonymous client.

+

“The process is quite boring, because you are in a routine,” Lladanosa + says. But one part of the process is consistently surprising: that moment + when the results pop up on the screen. “Every time it’s something different.” + For instance, one cocaine sample she had tested also contained phenacetin, + a painkiller added to increase the product’s weight; lidocaine, an anesthetic + that numbs the gums, giving the impression that the user is taking higher + quality cocaine; and common caffeine.

+

+

The deep web drug lab is the brainchild of Fernando Caudevilla, a Spanish + physician who is better known as “DoctorX” on the deep web, a nickname + given to him by his Energy Control co-workers because of his earlier writing + about the history, risks and recreational culture of MDMA. In the physical + world, Caudevilla has worked for over a decade with Energy Control on various + harm reduction focused projects, most of which have involved giving Spanish + illegal drug users medical guidance, and often writing leaflets about the + harms of certain substances.

+

Fernando Caudevilla, AKA DoctorX. Photo: Joseph Cox

+

Caudevilla first ventured into Silk Road forums in April 2013. “I would + like to contribute to this forum offering professional advice in topics + related to drug use and health,” he wrote in an introductory post, + using his DoctorX alias. Caudevilla offered to provide answers to questions + that a typical doctor is not prepared, or willing, to respond to, at least + not without a lecture or a judgment. “This advice cannot replace a complete + face-to-face medical evaluation,” he wrote, “but I know how difficult it + can be to talk frankly about these things.”

+

The requests flooded in. A diabetic asked what effect MDMA has on blood + sugar; another what the risks of frequent psychedelic use were for a young + person. Someone wanted to know whether amphetamine use should be avoided + during lactation. In all, Fernando’s thread received over 50,000 visits + and 300 questions before the FBI shut down Silk Road.

+

“He’s amazing. A gift to this community,” one user wrote on the Silk Road + 2.0 forum, a site that sprang up after the original. “His knowledge is + invaluable, and never comes with any judgment.” Up until recently, Caudevilla + answered questions on the marketplace “Evolution.” Last week, however, + the administrators of that site pulled a scam, + shutting the market down and escaping with an estimated $12 million worth + of Bitcoin.

+

Caudevilla’s transition from dispensing advice to starting up a no-questions-asked + drug testing service came as a consequence of his experience on the deep + web. He’d wondered whether he could help bring more harm reduction services + to a marketplace without controls. The Energy Control project, as part + of its mandate of educating drug users and preventing harm, had already + been carrying out drug testing for local Spanish users since 2001, at music + festivals, night clubs, or through a drop-in service at a lab in Madrid.

+

“I thought, we are doing this in Spain, why don’t we do an international + drug testing service?” Caudevilla told me when I visited the other Energy + Control lab, in Madrid. Caudevilla, a stocky character with ear piercings + and short, shaved hair, has eyes that light up whenever he discusses the + world of the deep web. Later, via email, he elaborated that it was not + a hard sell. “It was not too hard to convince them,” he wrote me. Clearly, + Energy Control believed that the reputation he had earned as an unbiased + medical professional on the deep web might carry over to the drug analysis + service, where one needs to establish “credibility, trustworthiness, [and] + transparency,” Caudevilla said. “We could not make mistakes,” he added.

+

+

+

While the Energy Control lab in Madrid lab only tests Spanish drugs from + various sources, it is the Barcelona location which vets the substances + bought in the shadowy recesses of of the deep web. Caudevilla no longer + runs it, having handed it over to his colleague Ana Muñoz. She maintains + a presence on the deep web forums, answers questions from potential users, + and sends back reports when they are ready.

+

The testing program exists in a legal grey area. The people who own the + Barcelona lab are accredited to experiment with and handle drugs, but Energy + Control doesn’t have this permission itself, at least not in writing.

+

“We have a verbal agreement with the police and other authorities. They + already know what we are doing,” Lladanosa tells me. It is a pact of mutual + benefit. Energy Control provides the police with information on batches + of drugs in Spain, whether they’re from the deep web or not, Espinosa says. + They also contribute to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug + Addiction’s early warning system, a collaboration that attempts to spread + information about dangerous drugs as quickly as possible.

+

By the time of my visit in February, Energy Control had received over + 150 samples from the deep web and have been receiving more at a rate of + between 4 and 8 a week. Traditional drugs, such as cocaine and MDMA, make + up about 70 percent of the samples tested, but the Barcelona lab has also + received samples of the prescription pill codeine, research chemicals and + synthetic cannabinoids, and even pills of Viagra.

+

So it’s fair to make a tentative judgement on what people are paying for + on the deep web. The verdict thus far? Overall, drugs on the deep web appear + to be of much higher quality than those found on the street.

+

“In general, the cocaine is amazing,” says Caudevilla, saying that the + samples they’ve seen have purities climbing towards 80 or 90 percent, and + some even higher. To get an idea of how unusual this is, take a look at + the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime World Drug Report 2014, + which reports that the average quality of street cocaine in Spain is just + over 40 percent, while in the United Kingdom it is closer to 30 percent.“We + have found 100 percent [pure] cocaine,” he adds. “That’s really, really + strange. That means that, technically, this cocaine has been purified, + with clandestine methods.”

+

Naturally, identifying vendors who sell this top-of-the-range stuff is + one of the reasons that people have sent samples to Energy Control. Caudevilla + was keen to stress that, officially, Energy Control’s service “is not intended + to be a control of drug quality,” meaning a vetting process for identifying + the best sellers, but that is exactly how some people have been using it.

+

As one buyer on the Evolution market, elmo666, wrote to me over the site’s + messaging system, “My initial motivations were selfish. My primary motivation + was to ensure that I was receiving and continue to receive a high quality + product, essentially to keep the vendor honest as far as my interactions + with them went.”

+

Vendors on deep web markets advertise their product just like any other + outlet does, using flash sales, gimmicky giveaways and promises of drugs + that are superior to those of their competitors. The claims, however, can + turn out to be empty: despite the test results that show that deep web + cocaine vendors typically sell product that is of a better quality than + that found on the street, in plenty of cases, the drugs are nowhere near + as pure as advertised.

+

“You won’t be getting anything CLOSE to what you paid for,” one user complained + about the cocaine from ‘Mirkov’, a vendor on Evolution. “He sells 65% not + 95%.”

+

+

Despite the prevalence of people using the service to gauge the quality + of what goes up their nose, many users send samples to Energy Control in + the spirit of its original mission: keeping themselves alive and healthy. + The worst case scenario from drugs purchased on the deep web is, well the + worst case. That was the outcome when Patrick McMullen, a + 17-year-old Scottish student, ingested half a gram of MDMA and three tabs + of LSD, reportedly purchased from the Silk Road. While talking to his friends + on Skype, his words became slurred and he passed out. Paramedics could + not revive him. The coroner for that case, Sherrif Payne, who deemed the + cause of death ecstasy toxicity, told The Independent “You + never know the purity of what you are taking and you can easily come unstuck.”

+

ScreamMyName, a deep web user who has been active since the original Silk + Road, wants to alert users to the dangerous chemicals that are often mixed + with drugs, and is using Energy Control as a means to do so.

+

“We’re at a time where some vendors are outright sending people poison. + Some do it unknowingly,” ScreamMyName told me in an encrypted message. + “Cocaine production in South America is often tainted with either levamisole + or phenacetine. Both poison to humans and both with severe side effects.”

+

In the case of Levamisole, those prescribing it are often not doctors + but veterinarians, as Levamisole is commonly used on animals, primarily + for the treatment of worms. If ingested by humans it can lead to cases + of extreme eruptions of the skin, as documented in a study from researchers at the University + of California, San Francisco. But Lladanosa has found Levamisole in cocaine + samples; dealers use it to increase the product weight, allowing them to + stretch their batch further for greater profit — and also, she says, because + Levamisole has a strong stimulant effect.

+

“It got me sick as fuck,” Dr. Feel, an Evolution user, wrote on the site’s + forums after consuming cocaine that had been cut with 23 percent Levamisole, + and later tested by Energy Control. “I was laid up in bed for several days + because of that shit. The first night I did it, I thought I was going to + die. I nearly drove myself to the ER.”

+

“More people die because of tainted drugs than the drugs themselves,” + Dr. Feel added. “It’s the cuts and adulterants that are making people sick + and killing them.”

+

The particular case of cocaine cut with Levamisole is one of the reasons + that ScreamMyName has been pushing for more drug testing on the deep web + markets. “I recognize that drug use isn’t exactly healthy, but why exacerbate + the problem?” he told me when I contacted him after his post. “[Energy + Control] provides a way for users to test the drugs they’ll use and for + these very users to know what it is they’re putting in their bodies. Such + services are in very short supply.”

+

After sending a number of Energy Control tests himself, ScreamMyName started + a de facto crowd-sourcing campaign to get more drugs sent to the lab, and + then shared the results, after throwing in some cash to get the ball rolling. + He set up a Bitcoin wallet, with the hope that users might chip in + to fund further tests. At the time of writing, the wallet has received + a total of 1.81 bitcoins; around $430 at today’s exchange rates.

+

In posts to the Evolution community, ScreamMyName pitched this project + as something that will benefit users and keep drug dealer honest. “When + the funds build up to a point where we can purchase an [Energy Control] + test fee, we’ll do a US thread poll for a few days and try to cohesively + decide on what vendor to test,” he continued.

+

Other members of the community have been helping out, too. PlutoPete, + a vendor from the original Silk Road who sold cannabis seeds and other + legal items, has provided ScreamMyName with packaging to safely send the + samples to Barcelona. “A box of baggies, and a load of different moisture + barrier bags,” PlutoPete told me over the phone. “That’s what all the vendors + use.”

+

It’s a modest program so far. ScreamMyName told me that so far he had + gotten enough public funding to purchase five different Energy Control + tests, in addition to the ten or so he’s sent himself so far. “The program + created is still in its infancy and it is growing and changing as we go + along but I have a lot of faith in what we’re doing,” he says.

+

But the spirit is contagious: elmo666, the other deep web user testing + cocaine, originally kept the results of the drug tests to himself, but + he, too, saw a benefit to distributing the data. “It is clear that it is + a useful service to other users, keeping vendors honest and drugs (and + their users) safe,” he told me. He started to report his findings to others + on the forums, and then created a thread with summaries of the test results, + as well as comments from the vendors if they provided it. Other users were + soon basing their decisions on what to buy on elmo666‘s tests.

+

“I’m defo trying the cola based on the incredibly helpful elmo and his + energy control results and recommendations,” wrote user jayk1984. On top + of this, elmo666 plans to launch an independent site on the deep web that + will collate all of these results, which should act as a resource for users + of all the marketplaces.

+

As word of elmo666's efforts spread, he began getting requests from drug + dealers who wanted him to use their wares for testing. Clearly, they figured + that a positive result from Energy Control would be a fantastic marketing + tool to draw more customers. They even offered elmo666 free samples. (He + passed.)

+

Meanwhile, some in the purchasing community are arguing that those running + markets on the deep web should be providing quality control themselves. + PlutoPete told me over the phone that he had been in discussions about + this with Dread Pirate Roberts, the pseudonymous owner of the original + Silk Road site. “We [had been] talking about that on a more organized basis + on Silk Road 1, doing lots of anonymous buys to police each category. But + of course they took the thing [Silk Road] down before we got it properly + off the ground,” he lamented.

+

But perhaps it is best that the users, those who are actually consuming + the drugs, remain in charge of shaming dealers and warning each other. + “It’s our responsibility to police the market based on reviews and feedback,” + elmo666 wrote in an Evolution forum post. It seems that in the lawless + space of the deep web, where everything from child porn to weapons are + sold openly, users have cooperated in an organic display of self-regulation + to stamp out those particular batches of drugs that are more likely to + harm users.

+

“That’s always been the case with the deep web,” PlutoPete told me. Indeed, + ever since Silk Road, a stable of the drug markets has been the review + system, where buyers can leave a rating and feedback for vendors, letting + others know about the reliability of the seller. But DoctorX’s lab, rigorously + testing the products with scientific instruments, takes it a step further.

+

“In the white market, they have quality control. In the dark market, it + should be the same,” Cristina Gil Lladanosa says to me before I leave the + Barcelona lab.

+

A week after I visit the lab, the results of the MDMA arrive in my inbox: + it is 85 percent pure, with no indications of other active ingredients. + Whoever ordered that sample from the digital shelves of the deep web, and + had it shipped to their doorstep in Canada, got hold of some seriously + good, and relatively safe drugs. And now they know it.

+

+

Top photo by Joan Bardeletti +

+

Follow Backchannel: Twitter + |Facebook +

+