Investigators examine drug samples confiscated from narcotics offenders at Suwon District Prosecutors Office in Gyeonggi Province, April 7. Newsis
Offenders arrested for selling or buying drugs on the dark web increased by almost 13 times over the past five years, a report from the National Police Agency showed Thursday.
According to the report submitted to Rep. Cho Eun-hee of the ruling People Power Party, the number of people apprehended for buying or selling drugs through the dark web jumped from 85 in 2018 to 1,097 in 2022.
The dark web is a part of the internet that is not indexed by conventional search engines and requires a specific type of browser called Tor to access.
The proportion of those using the dark web among total offenders caught for online drug trading rose from 1.1 percent in 2018 to 8.9 percent in 2022, the data showed.
Meanwhile, the number of teenage drug offenders has also increased, the report showed.
As of July this year, teens charged with possessing or trading drugs reached an all-time high of 602, growing almost six times from 104 in 2018.
"Police should actively engage in a war against drugs, using advanced investigation techniques, as a surge in young drug offenders ... is a sign of a social crisis," Cho said. (Yonhap)
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