Dark Internet

[From article]
It works by bouncing messages around several computers before they reach their final destination. The Tor network — which its founders liken to a series of ‘virtual tunnels’ — has 3,200 volunteers around the world who allow their computers to be used to send these messages.
Once users have downloaded some free software from the Tor website, they are ready to begin surfing — or selling things — with impunity.
Each message that is sent has several layers of encryption which are peeled away like the skins of an onion as it moves from computer to computer.
These reveal the next destination of the communication (which could be a file, web page, message, picture and so on), without showing its content as it is passed along the chain.
This means it is impossible to establish the identities or locations of the people at either end of the chain, or to see what they are talking about, selling, swapping or sharing.
[. . .]
Contrary to what you may imagine, the Tor Project — the body which provides the Tor network — is a highly respected organisation partly funded by Cambridge University, the U.S. State Department, the Swedish government and other organisations campaigning for liberty and free speech.
Based in Massachusetts, the Project is dedicated to electronic privacy and the rights of people to use the internet without being snooped on or tracked by intelligence agencies or companies.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2512136/Its-just-child-porn-Fake-passports-guns-cocaine-hitmen-hire-clicks-away-internet.html

It's not just child porn: Fake passports, guns, cocaine, even hitmen for hire are a few clicks away on the internet
Tor is a computer system which allows people to talk in private online
Messages are encrypted as they bounce around a computer network
Officials cannot see who is talking to who or what is being said
It has been used by political activists during the Arab uprisings
However criminals also use it to sell drugs, guns and child porn
By  STEVE BOGGAN
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 18:24 EST, 22 November 2013 | UPDATED: 18:25 EST, 22 November 2013

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Meanwhile prosecutors in New York have charged Ulbricht - a native Texan who was living in San Francisco and holds degrees from the University of Texas and Penn State - with trying unsuccessfully to solicit the murder of a Canadian man who allegedly hacked into Silk Road, obtained dealers names and began blackmailing Ulbricht.
Ulbricht is also accused of operating Silk Road under the alias 'Dread Pirate Roberts' and earning $80 million from commissions involving every sale.
[. . .]
FBI agents appear to have penetrated the behind-the-scenes operations of Silk Road and obtained a list of the sites users and sellers, court papers show.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2511727/Silk-road-drugs-gangs-Ross-William-Ulbricht-planned-6-murders.html

Man behind Silk Road drug gang 'planned to carry out six murders'
Ross William Ulbricht accused of masterminding Silk Road website
Notorious online marketplace sold everything from illegal drugs to guns
The 29-year-old is now alleged to have hired a hitman to carry out six killings
FBI shut down website, but just weeks later it has reopened as Silk Road 2.0
By SHARI MILLER
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 07:27 EST, 22 November 2013 | UPDATED: 09:07 EST, 22 November 2013