Cyber Trap for "Raccoon". How Vitebsk investigators expose spice dealers

Classic detective stories are full of shootouts and chases. However, sometimes excellent physical fitness and impeccable weapon handling are not enough to solve a crime. This is especially noticeable in criminal cases related to the activities of online stores selling narcotic smoking mixtures. Vitebsk investigators and experts who participated in the exposure of "Abracadabra" – one of the largest Belarusian online stores selling spice drugs – told a correspondent of "SB Belarus Segodnya" how dealers of "dope" are brought to justice from the back alleys of cyberspace.

"Abracadabra" operated in Vitebsk from October 2013 to March 2014. Its four organizers earned huge sums of money by selling spice drugs.

But the lavish life came to an end. For illegal acquisition and possession of particularly dangerous psychotropic substances with the intent to sell, two underage participants of the criminal outlet were sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment. The third seller received an even longer sentence – 13.5 years. The fourth, who fled during the investigation, was recently apprehended in Russia. The issue of his extradition to his homeland is being resolved.

Nikita Manyakhin, an investigator for particularly important cases at the Vitebsk City Department of the Investigative Committee, who was involved in analyzing the internet correspondence of "Abracadabra" with buyers, recalls that more than a hundred witnesses were summoned to court in this case:

— However, witness testimony alone is not enough to bring dealers to criminal responsibility. After all, the seller communicates with the buyer on social networks incognito. To prove the seller's guilt, we extract information from their computer's hard drive. We compare it with phone calls. We determine whether, for example, a specific person was at the address where the psychotropic substances were stashed.

But sometimes internet correspondence is encrypted. To decrypt it, explains Alexander Danchenko, chief expert of the technical expertise department of the State Committee of Forensic Examinations for the Vitebsk Region, special computer programs have to be written:

— This was also the case with "Abracadabra". The cunning individuals who used the VIPole application (a Skype analogue) encrypted their messages. And there were more than 3 thousand of them! If you were to decrypt each one manually, it would be a colossal waste of time. Therefore, we created a computer program that did it automatically.

Vitebsk experts have learned to retrieve information from damaged hard drives. They say that the times are not far off when it will be possible to decrypt correspondence from the paid version of VIPole (in this case, the information is stored not on the user's computer, but on a server that can be located anywhere in the world).

By the way, after "Abracadabra", three more online stores selling spice, salts, and "mixes" were closed in Vitebsk: "U Enota", "Dvoechnik", and "Podonok". The creators of the first managed to be detected in Mogilev, Polotsk, and Brest. And the latter, in terms of operation time and sales volume, could surpass "Abracadabra" itself. Criminal cases have already been initiated for all these points of sale.

The thirst for easy money is perhaps what primarily draws young people into the criminal business. And also the illusion of impunity. But, as practice shows, this is indeed only an illusion. It is not easy to get lost in the vastness of the global network today. Therefore, responsibility cannot be avoided.

Sergey Golesnik, SB Belarus Today