Number of packages intercepted last year... (a look at the #s)
[9 Points] nsgiad:
[5 Points] over9000pies:
"There’s no apparent successor to Silk Road." Um, really? There are like 15 successors to Silk Road just on the sidebar.
[2 Points] queryox1:
In the USA.
[2 Points] grumpydoge:
Wow, those numbers are a surprise to me. Could it be possible that not all intercepted packages are reported? From what I've read, it's not uncommon for customs to intercept shipments of schedule IV substances purchased without prescription from online pharmacies and send love letters. By those numbers the average intercepted package contains 5 lbs of marijuana.
[2 Points] badgrl2:
Interceptions went up 20% last year, but drug shipments sent through USPS must've went up by a lot more than 20% last year due to increased darknet market use and weed becoming legal or quasi-legal in several states the same year, right?? ...so that would mean packages are becoming less likely to get intercepted since they clearly cannot keep up with the increase the way they're doing things now.
Edit: The 2,600 arrests caught me off guard though. Wow, that's wayyy more CD's than I thought they did. Unless my math is totally off, they make an arrest for about 1 out of every 5 confiscated packages (2,622 arrests/13,389 intercepted drug packages)..?!!
Jesus, that's nearly 5lbs of pot per package. No wonder they were intercepted.
EDIT: In addition there were just over 13k total intercepted packages last year, just the first quarter of 2013 saw 43 Billion packages shipped via USPS. That means even if there were only 43 billion packages delivered in the year, there is an intercept rate of 1 per 3.3 million packages. Those numbers just don't even seem right, but I got them straight form USPS. http://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2013/pr13_021.htm