Ghost Markets of the Darknet: Assessing the Feasibility of Military-Grade Arms Acquisition in West Africa
If Amazon can deliver a bicycle made in Italy to someone’s doorstep in Peru in less than two weeks, can a militant non-state organization order an RPG from a dark web marketplace and receive it in their area of operations before being demolished by a counterterrorism campaign?
This paper attempts to answer this question and others that stem from it, assessing the possibility of a hypothetical splinter faction from the West African insurgent group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) acquiring an RPG or weapon of the same class relying on dark web-based marketplaces. More specifically, the paper investigates the logistical details such as possible means of delivery – internally or internationally across continents; available payment methods; and the issue of trusting online black-market weapons listings.
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