In April 2018, a criminal group based in West Yorkshire was arrested for selling illicit drugs to the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Argentina and Singapore. According to the National Crime Agency, they used a site on the dark web to market their wares, and made £163,000 in five months from December 2016.
Professor Levi is lead researcher for the new ESRC-funded research project Cyber-TNOC (transnational organised crime), which will focus on the impact of technologies on modern slavery, the sale of illicit drugs, the spread of malware and money laundering. The project will build up research evidence to inform policy development, intervention and decision-making related to Cyber-TNOC.