Dead drop based drug distribution doesn’t scale to retail levels. It is used in Moscow and I know of people who will order from a dealer, then search the surrounding area and clear out all the drops they find. It works for them, although one questions the sanity of stealing from Russian drug dealers.
For more practical guides on how people who sell drugs avoid the negative repercussions:
• AlpraKing’s business guide is hard to beat. https://archive.is/K7j1U
(It’s a great business guide in general, actually)
• Gary Cooper’s Never Get Busted Again and Never Get Raided Again shows practical use of dead drops for dealing.
>although one questions the sanity of stealing from Russian drug dealers.
I'd conjecture that the value of the booty would be quite limited too? (small envelopes not kilograms exchanging hands). A smack-head probably wouldn't care about the risks just as long as they get their next fix?
EDIT: "4. Don't hire people under 30 years old" that is great advise. You want Mike Ehrmantraut like characters (from "Better call Saul") ... btw that show was consistently good in OpSec lessons (unlike the parent show "Breaking Bad").
Sure, they aren’t stealing to supply their own business but to supply their partying. Apparently there’s some trick involved in selecting a dealer who offers a variety of options, not just one substance. They cache one or more of each in an area, so you buy a mid size quantity of something and the surrounding block probably has 5x as much plus other things... because the dealers are humans, they develop patterns of drop locations. Once these guys learn the pattern, they know where to look.
The drops get ripped so frequently there is a process for handling a drop that has been unloaded before the customer get there. The customer has to supply pictures of the drop location and the empty drop, then the dealer will send them to another place. Dead drops provide some security, but they’re a trade off.
I think the Gary Cooper videos are massively underrated for security principles. He explains how the adversary operates, how they think, and what their capabilities are, then based on that he distills core security strategies to exploit their operational limitations and mitigate their capabilities.
This is really great stuff for understanding how to counteract a threat, how to do proper counterintelligence analysis and apply it for security. The problem is that people see these as “stoner videos” rather than “the design and implementation of counter law enforcement techniques, by a former cop.” There is a lot to be learned, both from general security principles (such as compartmentation, cover, and concealment) But also how to analyze an adversary and develop a plan to mitigate their capabilities.
I was going to do a write up them years ago but someone scooped me by seeing my recommendation and then doing a (crappy) writeup before me. Just one of the things that killed my enthusiasm for sharing recommendations. But, I should do a write up. For a counterintelligence analysis they are sublime.
For more practical guides on how people who sell drugs avoid the negative repercussions:
• AlpraKing’s business guide is hard to beat. https://archive.is/K7j1U (It’s a great business guide in general, actually)
• Gary Cooper’s Never Get Busted Again and Never Get Raided Again shows practical use of dead drops for dealing.
Busted: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyAjLkBCWKI
Raided: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ML6VAy_ygVs