American made mines and killer drones for cheap

The lavish deliveries of ‘lethal aid’ from the US, UK and other NATO countries to Ukraine amid its conflict with Russia have led to marketplaces where some of those weapons can be purchased popping up on the dark web.

The Ukrainian traders claim to offer not just small arms or body armor there, but also such sophisticated hardware as Javelin and NLAW anti-tank systems or Phoenix Ghost and Switchblade explosive drones.

That said, it’s not possible to completely rule out that the sellers actually did not have the said weapons in stock, as the  investigators did not complete the purchase. Scamming schemes are common for dark web marketplaces.

The  investigator was able to contact one of the said sellers through a marketplace on the darknet and agree the purchase, for a price of $4,000, of a Phoenix Ghost loitering munition, which had been developed by the US especially for the needs of the Ukrainian military.

The journalists, who pretended to be interested buyers, said they were also interested in a batch of American M18A1 Claymore anti-personnel mines, but were told that those were out of stock.

As for the drone, the trader assured that it’ll be placed into a stash, with its coordinates and the photo of the spot to be shared after the payment is made through the marketplace, acting a guarantor of the deal. The parcel is going to be dug into the ground in the woods, he said.

When asked if the Phoenix Ghost could be delivered to an area outside Ukraine, specifically the Polish border town of Przemysl, he replied this won’t be a problem, but would cost an extra $1,000.

This potentially suggests that the Ukrainian arms smugglers may have already established contacts with border guards and are able to cross in and out of Poland without complications.

The  investigator has also exchanged messages with another trader, nicknamed ‘weapons ukraine,’ who was looking to sell batches of US-made body armor at the price of $ 1,500 for five units, and M4 rifles with a silencer and a hundred bullets for $2,4000 thousand per set.