Drugs by post

Photo: Dmitri Kotjuh / Järva Teataja

A list lays spread on the drug department investigators table at Tax and Customs Board, featuring names of hundred-some young people. Law-abiding young people, or so it seems. Little do they know that ere the year is over, criminal cases will knock on their doors – for ordering drugs to their homes over the Internet.

«Well, we’ll be working with these names now, according as we are able, one by one,» says drug department head Urmet Tambre.

Whoever thinks ordering small quantities of marijuana via Internet from abroad is no crime as in Estonia the criminalisation threshold stands at 7 grams, is wrong. In reality, with drugs crossing state boundaries, criminalisation comes at the tiny minimal amount of 0.1 grams.

It is as wrong to assume that if one successfully orders drugs via Internet and the goods aren’t found out at the customs, then you’re safe. Actually, for five years you will have to hold your breath – that being the expiry period for crimes. In reality, it is a time bomb ticking away, because your virtual purchase is seen in the servers.

Our daily drugs

Thus: if three years ago, for instance, you ordered cannabis at some internet forum and the drug police closes down the «online store» the next month, and finds your data in the server, Estonian Tax and Customs Board may come knocking at your door.

This is precisely what will happen to the hundred of so young people whose names are on the drug department table, waiting to be dealt with. During 2012–2014, they purchased drugs over the Internet, tried to get the substance into Estonia by postal services, and will now have to answer before the Law.

«Great will be their surprise, for sure,» assures Mr Tambre.

According to him, the people called to Tax and Customs Board – for a talk – do not initially sense they have done anything that’s forbidden.

«As a rule, these are totally decent young people,» says he. «Finally, as the severity of it starts to dawn, the conversation often ends in tears – people’s jobs are endangered and the daily lives disturbed, as criminal punishments mean lots of duties and limits.»

For Tax and Customs Board, cases of Internet drug orders are a daily routine. Every workday, at least one parcel of drugs gets caught at the postal package sorting centre in Tallinn.

It’s a piece of cake, actually, to order ecstasy, cannabis or marijuana over the Internet. Knowing the right forums, downloading the right program, and creating a user account, a person may order drugs daily. In 80 percent of the cases, it takes virtual money – the bitcoins. As opposed to real money, it is almost impossible to trace the movements of bitcoins, creating a deceptive feeling of safety.

Drug business being criminal, these internet sites are far from being permanent of course. To muddy waters, they undergo constant change. Still, keeping an eye on the forums, one may be in the know.

And if an internet site operating in Mexico, for instance, features an ad of «special discount: only today, 1 g of marijuana for €1», a novice may be tempted to go ahead and buy. As, on the surface, it feels fool-proof. The more so that «in the streets» the gram costs two dozen times more.

The drug department has created the profile of the typical drug orderer. As a rule, it is a 25 years old university student, male, from a decent family, and already living an independent life. He considers marijuana or cannabis to be a so-called natural and harmless stuff.

The latter being a major misconception these days. To the tune of vaccination being a global medical companies’ conspiracy – to make mega profits.

«Once we go and have a conversation with the one who ordered the drugs, we keep hearing the same old talk: everywhere they say that cannabis might as well be legalised and what bad would the couple of puffs do,» smiles Mr Tambre.

«Afterwards, as the punishment and the realisation of consequences set in, then come the tears and the weeping and the wailing. In our practice, we don’t have a single case of people being punished and then ordering some more,» he adds.

According to Mr Tambre, ordering drugs over the Internet is like giving Satan a finger. There may come the moment of temptation. And then, at home, you press «Enter» to order. «Even if not in the «mood» the day after, one can’t get out of the system anymore,» says the man.

Parcels standing by

The entire process will keep running, unstoppable. Inevitably, the criminal parcel shows up at your doorstep. Directly, or indirectly – in the form of investigators.

Often, before receiving the drug package, a person manages to send five-six orders. Not knowing that the first package got caught at the customs and was sent for expert assessment. The person thinks he was cheated, or perhaps the package was lost. So he keeps on ordering, again and again.

All the packages arriving to his name will be put on standby, as expert assessment may take weeks, or even months. Meanwhile, the scope of the crime keeps on growing.