We prioritize your anonymity and privacy, ensuring that all transactions are confidential and untraceable. Your identity and purchase details are never shared, allowing you to shop with peace of mind. “There is a demand for these guns, these firearms, and there’s definitely going to be a market,” he says, and the potential for profit will continue to fuel straw buying and smuggling without deterrents. “Straw purchasing” is when a legal Canadian firearm licence-holder buys a gun and then sells it on the black market. “It’s Toronto-specific that the crime guns, that the majority of them are domestic, predominately through straw purchasing,” Saunders says. A recent search for keywords including gun, Canada, Ontario and Toronto got 25 hits.
The law, which came on the heels of several deadly mass shootings including the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, created a federal gun trafficking statute for the first time and gave prosecutors more tools to crack down on illegal gun purchases. A Dallas Morning News review of federal firearms prosecutions in North Texas courts shows guns sold by unlicensed dealers have been recovered at crime scenes after being used to commit numerous offenses. One sale involving an assault rifle allowed a man with a history of mental illness to kill seven and injure 25 in a shooting in the Odessa area in 2019. The shooter, Seth Ator, tried to purchase a gun from a licensed dealer in 2014, but the background check system denied the sale. Ator found an unlicensed seller who sold guns online and bought a rifle from him in late 2016 that he later used in the shooting. “The data shows, therefore, that those who illegally traffic firearms whether its out of a trunk, at a gun show or online are responsible for real violence in this nation,” Dettelbach said.
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Black Market Guns is your trusted source for firearms for sale, self-defense weapons, military weapons, and a reliable gun store. As the most trusted place to buy weapons on the dark web, our online platform facilitates anonymous gun purchase transactions, ensuring discreet and secure processes for buy guns online. Even when illegal arms dealers are caught, the punishment for selling guns without a license tends to be weak. The maximum penalty is five years in prison, but many defendants receive less than that.
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According to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, news reports have claimed weapons from the war in Ukraine were “finding their way to Finnish gangsters, French rioters, Nigerian fighters and the Mexican cartels.” Larry Shane Sparkman was given probation by a federal judge in Dallas for selling guns without a license to an undercover ATF agent in a parking lot with “no paperwork.” Sparkman sold firearms in 2019 to the agent — as well as to an informant who is a felon, court records show. Licensed firearms dealers, by contrast, are required by law to keep records of all gun sales and run buyers through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
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On the other, there are several publicized cases of people successfully buying and selling guns on the dark web, including weapons used in the 2016 Munich attack. Another key data point demonstrates the shift in the types of supply lines, or trafficking channels, used to move firearms out of lawful commerce into the illegal market over the past two decades. Investigations involving corrupt federal firearms licensees (FFLs) decreased over the study period with the most frequent channels identified now being illegal, unlicensed firearm dealing by private persons and straw purchasing, which is when someone buys a gun for someone who is prohibited. Court records say Villarreal would time his trips from Texas to Oklahoma City to buy from Jump and Pond “to coincide with local gun shows,” where buyers and sellers can use the private sale loophole to avoid federal background checks. Armslist has been sued multiple times for being the source of weapons wielded by murderers who were legally barred from owning firearms. This directive acknowledged the urgent need for data-driven strategies to curb gun violence and illegal gun trafficking across the nation.
The Rise Of “Hybrid Firearms”
It examined more than 9,700 closed ATF firearm trafficking investigations that began between 2017 and 2021. Firearms trafficking is when guns are purposely moved into the illegal market for a criminal purpose or possession. The report ordered by Attorney General Merrick Garland is the first in-depth analysis of firearm trafficking investigations in more than 20 years. Countries geographically close to the United States likely do not need to purchase firearms on the darknet and can rely on direct smuggling across the border.
Other Laws & Policies
“When I heard them say that they decided to ban all gun-related ads because a few users cried out for it, it inspired me to create a place for law-abiding gun owners to buy and sell online without all of the hassles of auctions and shipping,” Gibbon said. Those seven guns became part of an investigation by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), which traced the Reynosa weapons and dozens of others back to their original buyers in Oklahoma City. The trail led to two men who were using the web, including a site called Armslist—the so-called Craigslist of Guns—to find whatever Villarreal wanted. To produce the NFCTA, the ATF assembled and led a team of independent subject experts from current and former law enforcement, academia, and related fields. Although ATF issues a variety of public and law enforcement reports and bulletins regarding firearm commerce, trafficking, and related issues every year, it has not undertaken a joint academic study close to the scale of the NFCTA in more than 20 years. In April 2024, the Department issued Volume III of the NFCTA, Firearm Trafficking Investigations, which examines 9,708 closed ATF firearm trafficking investigations initiated between CY 2017 and 2021.
Gun Sales
- Freshtools is a unique marketplace in that it does not only provide the stolen data, but it allows criminals to purchase MaaS which can cause further damage to the victims.
- “They trafficked in – anything you could get in the black market – poisons, things like that,” says Vincent D’Agostino, an FBI agent with the cyber division.
- Bennett was sentenced to 27 months in 2022; Sims was sentenced to 24 months in 2022; and Selby was given probation in 2021, court records show.
- In April 2021, Attorney General Garland directed the ATF to undertake its first comprehensive study of criminal gun trafficking, the intentional movement of one or more firearms into the illegal market for a criminal purpose or possession.
- He says the influx of firearms has contributed to an increase in violent gun crime in Canada.
By and large, “the conflict in Ukraine is absorbing weapons, not releasing them,” according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. “The intensity of the fighting in the east and south has resulted in materiel being used as soon as it arrives,” the organization found. Finally, the claim about American weapons sent to Ukraine ending up in Syria appeared to originate from Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Mojitaba Damirchilo, who claimed in Iranian state media that Ukraine sent U.S. weapons to “terrorist groups” in Syria. As noted by Ukrainian outlet Ukrainska Pravda, Damirchilo cited “unnamed and unverified reports.” Iran has allied with Russia in its war with Ukraine.
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DarkOwl analysts have previously released a report detailing the presence of alleged cartel-affiliated marketplaces on the darknet and detailed some of their product offerings including sophisticated concealed shipping. The global black market for guns continues to thrive, driven by smuggling networks, unregulated 3D-printed firearms, and weak regulations. These weapons fuel violence, crime, and conflict, posing significant challenges to public safety and global security.
- The entire country has just one legal gun store, known as the Directorate of Arms and Munitions Sales, which is located in Mexico City and operated by the military.
- Despite Carlson’s assertion that his claim is based on fact, not speculation, neither he nor any independent sources have provided evidence to support the allegations of widespread Ukrainian arms sales.
- New data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives shows that 68,000 illegally trafficked firearms in the U.S. came through unlicensed dealers who aren’t required to perform background checks over a five year report that was released Thursday, April 4, 2024.
- That included one defendant who sold hundreds of guns without a license, earning tens of thousands of dollars, the report said.
- Information compiled recently by data aggregation platform Echosec showed how illegal weapons are available for purchase on the dark web, an encrypted part of the internet where the black market flourishes.
- Carlson, for example, did not cite any sources when claiming that Ukraine’s American weapons ended up on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Some states, including California, Connecticut, Maryland, and Massachusetts, have additional strong laws that may be used to prosecute firearms traffickers, as described below. Research also indicates that gun thefts and bulk gun purchases are important pathways through which guns are trafficked. For more information about these issues see our pages on Reporting Lost and Stolen Firearms and Bulk Gun Purchases.
Others are looking for stolen data, hacking services, or even banned books and political content. These sites cater to cybercriminals seeking valuable data, such as credit card numbers, login credentials, and personal information. Chief Saunders says the changing sources of firearms and how they’re circulated is a growing concern. “It’s going to be a whole new script, and it will be borderless when it comes to anyone that is motivated to access or use a part.” Finding guns for sale can be challenging in countries with strict regulations.
Fueling Violence And Crime
After several years of dating, she and Ross had ended their relationship in 2011. Looking for a new perspective, prosecutors asked the New York FBI cyber branch to join the hunt. This was an elite team – with experience working inside the dark web and with Tor – also known as the onion router – where Silk Road was hidden. When FBI agents got the case, they only knew the site was run by someone using the alias “Dread Pirate Roberts,” a famous movie character. The investigation led FBI agents from Iceland to New York to San Francisco in search of the shadowy figure behind the website. Studies have indicated weapons have been moving increasingly from Colombia, Spain, and Pakistan – in addition to the United States – to be resold in the Tepito underground.
The use of Crime Gun Intelligence Center (CGIC) referrals increased nearly 20% from 2017 to 2021, while the use of Confidential Informants to initiative cases dropped nine percent during that time. This data underscores the value of CGICs, which are law enforcement hubs that focus exclusively on investigating and preventing gun violence in local communities. The Justice Department today announced the publication of Firearm Trafficking Investigations, the third volume of the National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment (NFCTA), a four-part, comprehensive examination of commerce in firearms and the diversion of firearms to illegal markets. This Volume incorporates input from the most comprehensive national survey of the special agents who conduct Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) trafficking investigations to provide the first in-depth analysis of firearm trafficking investigations in more than two decades. This report examines 9,708 closed ATF firearm trafficking investigations initiated between CY 2017 and 2021. In April 2021, Attorney General Garland directed the ATF to undertake its first comprehensive study of criminal gun trafficking, the intentional movement of one or more firearms into the illegal market for a criminal purpose or possession.
