Parents warned after children order drugs and weapons on web

POLICE are contacting parents if children buy drugs or weapons online and have them delivered to their homes, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) has been sending letters to homeowners and employers whose addresses were found on drug vendors’ seized customer databases and who may have no idea that their buildings are being used to receive contraband.

Steve Welsh, who leads the NCA’s dark web division, said parents and grandparents should “ask questions” if they have noticed an influx of parcels addressed to their children as instances of “next day drug deliveries” soar.

The warning comes after schoolboy Bailey Gwynne was stabbed by a 16-year-old who had bought a knife on the internet and had it delivered to his mother’s garden shed.

Mr Welsh said the sophistication and easy accessibility of thriving dark web markets means that parents should be vigilant as “the exposure for young people to risk is very high. We had a tragic response from a couple on the back of a letter we sent, whose grandchild had died,” Mr Welsh said.

“He had been using their accommodation as a delivery address and they would put his packages aside for him to collect, not knowing what was inside them.”

Often, packages will have come through Parcelforce and may appear innocuous, with the same non-specific business label as an ordinary parcel.

Mr Welsh said he had seen several instances of customers asking “vendors” to post their items in DVD boxes because they were getting it delivered to their parents and despite being advised by the seller that this might raise suspicion, they promised not to leave negative feedback on the website if they never received their goods.

The dark web is an unindexed part of the internet that offers people anonymity to surf websites, interact and buy goods using cryptocurrency.

It is often exploited by criminals who use it as a cloaked way to conduct fraud, launder money and sell and market illegal items.