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Comment by BigTigger | Hacker News Reader

I believe they were using bitcoins to anonymize some transactions.

The hardest thing for a regular consumer I would think would be finding a drop point. Drugs and things sent through the mail would be fairly easy to track to a consumer who could then be charged for possession.

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I don't think these guys used bitcoin, I think you're thinking of silkroad (another tor based drug network that wired wrote about a while back). As far as I know silkroad is still operating - although I don't have tor set up so don't know.

> Drugs and things sent through the mail would be fairly easy to track to a consumer

Yeah, how?

Assuming they found them in the mail during transit using xray or some other method since they were in canada, shipping to US goes through customs which has special rules allowing that, then they can look at who is receiving the package and then they get them to squeal on who the dealer was.

I don't think they x-ray every single package, that's just impossible, and who would look at all the x-rays.

So even if they do it,

1) your chances of getting caught are extremely low

2) i don't think you're liable for receiving a package (though you may be for keeping and not reporting it).

Yea it's certainly a complicated situation for both you and the police to figure out. The problem is I don't think I'd trust them to not try to strong arm you into confessing and saying who it was, assuming you did order them even if they couldn't prove it.

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