According to the Dutch press, the police have apprehended 4 persons operating a drug-smuggling ring in Amsterdam using 3D printers to produce packaging for a range of illegal narcotics. The accused party were shipping out tens of thousands of postal packages using the dark-web. The Public Prosecution Service is looking into the particulars of the case.
3D Printed Packaging Illegal Substances
According to the police, they caught 3 of the suspects in the act while logged into their computers. Another 4th suspect was operating out of the Werkendam municipality operating the 3D printers. The police presume that this was where they were packaging the drugs in Nintendo cases and ink cartridges. The authorities searched 5 houses, an office and a shed on Tuesday as part of the investigation.
This case comes in the wake of a major bust in May, when police ceased the illegal ‘Hansa Marketplace’. A Dutch account with the name ‘Doug-Heffernan’ drew the attention of the authorities. The account was a front for drug-running and responsible for trading in cocaine, ecstasy, MDMA and other drugs. This did not deter illegal activities for long. Other accounts surfaced on Dream Market, an alternative marketplace.
Although the dark-web is still rife with misuse, this arrest has given the police the digital records of the suspects. With the aid of the names on these mailing lists, the authorities may be able to track down the addresses of buyers in recent years.
Potential Misuses & Regulation
The case brings to light many of the growing pains of new technologies like 3D printing and the global Internet access. Cases such as production of weapons using 3D printers or operations like silk road have drawn negative criticism for both technologies as being capable of immense misuse. As the use of 3D printing goes, there may also be certain regulations put on what can and can’t be printed.
While the cases are few and far between, this drug ring was a massive operation. It may shift the focus on how companies and private users are meant to handle 3D printing legally. Eventually, such cases will become a political matter and the topic of legislative discourse as with all technologies.
Featured image provided by the Dutch police.