Darkweb drug transactions account for up to 40 percent of the drug deals in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg, according to an authority on the matter. The claim seems dubious to me though.

Peter Gruber, head of the drug-related crime department at the State Office of Criminal Investigation, said that “all kinds of drugs” are available in Vortharlberg because the demand exists. “Due to the internet and the darknet, of course, we already have the problem that almost all drugs are found in Vorarlberg,” says Gruber.

Wastewater at sewage treatment plants in Vorarlberg is the source of Gruber’s claim about the types of drugs available in the region. Legal drugs, such as alcohol and nicotine, are consumed the most. Marijuana is the most frequently used illegal substance. Marijuana is followed by cocaine, amphetamines, and other stimulants.

Gruber estimated that between 30 and 40 percent of drug deals in Vorarlberg are initiated on the darkweb. The rest, he explained, “take place in person on the street or at other meeting points. (This seems like the logical conclusion about the remainder of the transactions.)

Gruber complained that a new drug dealer would enter the business as soon as the police jailed a different dealer. “Of course, whenever someone is arrested, the next one will gise up,” he said.

I only covered this because the 30 to 40 percent claim seems unusually high. I thought, in most places, purchases on darkweb marketplaces accounted for a single-digit percent of drug trafficking activity.