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I run a group of telegram bots for helping to moderate these large telegram groups. A quick look through the logs shows mostly a lot of marijuana for sale in Dutch and a heap of cryptocurrencies preventing spam attacks. Having said that, as the bots are used in hundreds of groups I wonder what analysis I could do on the data.

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When I visited Ukraine, a friend pointed out lots of graffiti advertising people that sell drugs on Telegram.

Don’t these methods of selling drugs mean the police can really easily infiltrate/perform a ‘sting’ operation? How do they verify the buyer and protect themselves from this?

In Ukraine and Russia dead-drops as a method of delivery is common. They also use the postal system just like regular dark web markets, what Telgram groups and contacts replace is the actual market part, reputation scoring and escrow

Interesting. I didn't know what dead-drops were. Here's the wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_drop

this is mostly because of reach.

telegram is the defacto communication medium in russia and ukraine.

they don't sell there for one reason or another. it's simply because all their clientele is there. no need to overthink it.

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