This chapter presents a descriptive analysis of illicit drug trading conducted via cryptomarkets,
‘eBay’ style marketplaces operating on the darknet (Martin 2014a, 2014b). Over the past seven
years, cryptomarkets have emerged as a significant new vector for the retail and delivery of
illicit drugs. One of the least understood aspects of cryptomarket-facilitated drug trading
concerns the location of vendors who use the darknet to trade illicit drugs across national
borders. While previous quantitative papers in this area have noted the locations of vendors
selling drugs on cryptomarkets (eg Christin 2013; Soska & Christin 2015), these previous studies
have not differentiated between vendors who are prepared to sell drugs to international or
domestic-only clientele. The aim of this research is to fill this gap in knowledge and determine
which countries are the most active, in terms of both domestic-only and internationally
oriented drug vendors, as well as which countries dominate the trade in particular drugs,
specifically cannabis, ecstasy-type products, cocaine, methamphetamine and opioids
