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However, there are areas where it is difficult to view the increase in drug crime as just an'optic illusion'.

The number of illegal drug trafficking through the dark web and the hidden Internet, where it is difficult to know who did what, has increased significantly. 



Reporter Han Seong-hee covered it.

Various menus are displayed on the



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screen, and photos and prices are displayed when tapped.



It may be marked as'out of stock'.



It looks like an online shopping mall, but it is a screen of the so-called'dark web' created by drug sellers.



Another site.

They exchange cryptographic conversations so that only drug sellers and buyers can read the content.



These sites have servers in different countries and change shape from time to time, making tracking difficult.



[Police drug investigation person: I have heard of (Dark Web) a lot.

We do a lot of investigation with that, we.

It must have been only 2-3 years.] I



asked a security company that specializes in analyzing the dark web to see how active transactions are actually being made.



The number of times Korean words related to drugs are mentioned was about 968,000,000 in January of this year alone.



It has increased by more than 15 times in two years.



The police also recently viewed the dark web as a major drug dealer and are focusing their investigations, but the number of people caught while dealing with drugs through the dark web last year increased more than nine times compared to the previous year.



However, considering the size of the dark web drug transaction, it appears to be a very small number of arrests.



There are about 10 dark webs specializing in the sale of drugs in Korea, and it has been found that as many as thousands of users per one place.



Some point out that in order to chase the dark web drug trafficking, which is growing secretly and rapidly, private technology must be added to the investigative power of investigative agencies.



[Lee Jiwon/Dark Web Analysis Specialist: The means of crime and methods are also being advanced.

In line with that, many investigative techniques and tracking techniques must be developed...

.]



(Video coverage: Nam Nam Kim, video editing: Seongwon Ha)



▶ If it's a

bit of a    

twist...

'Street drug offenders' increased