[imagesource: Carte Blanche]

The smartphones we carry around with us all day, every day, have forever altered how we live our lives.

Tap tap, and here comes my lift or the week’s groceries or a greasy meal because I’m hungover and too lazy to leave the house.

Technology is also completely changing how the illicit drug trade and its many associated crimes are carried out.

You don’t need to stand on the corner and hawk your goods when you can connect with thousands of potential customers via your phone.

This past Sunday, in a segment titled ‘Sting in the tale’, Carte Blanche took a closer look at how these connections are being made and how authorities are cracking down:

With the evolution of social media and online apps, criminals are having a field day marketing their illicit goods to people from all spheres of society and – scarily – to any child with access to a phone.

From pornography to street and prescription drugs, to guns and forged official documents, all are for sale on many of the platforms we rely on every day: community information apps, e-hailing, social media and messenger apps with a “people near me” function.

While most of us are using EskomSePush to know when the lights are going out, for example, there are some who are trying to use it for more nefarious means.

The Carte Blanche team followed a Crime Intelligence-driven investigation into online drug running, joined a sting operation, and heard from victims who suffer at the hands of unforgiving criminal bosses.

John Webb, the show’s Executive Producer, said Derek Watts told him that the interviews he did with the young women caught up in an online drug peddling operation were “perhaps, the toughest” he has ever done.

[source:carteblanche]