Police have nabbed 445 people, mostly in their 20s and 30s, on charges of purchasing drugs from the dark web and social media, and taking the narcotics over the past five years, the policy agency said Wednesday. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said the suspects got their hands on the drugs from the dark web and social media using the so-called drop-off method, in which drugs are left in a specific place for pickup, between February 2018 and April 2023. They bought 3.7 kilograms of marijuana, 469 grams of methamphetamine, 100 tablets of ecstasy and 305 grams of synthetic cannabis in total, mostly from Telegram, according to officials. Of them, 399 people, or 89.7 percent of the total, were in their 20s and 30s. The list included five teenagers who purchased the drugs out of curiosity, with only a few of them found to have taken the drugs, officials said. "It repeatedly shows that the brisk trading of narcotics takes place through social media, which is convenient for use, and yet guarantees anonymity like the dark web," the police said during a press briefing, pointing to familiarity with internet use as the main reason for the large number of young suspects. Police said they formally arrested three people separately for selling 600 grams of marijuana, 60 tablets of ecstasy and 2 grams of methamphetamine between November 2019 and February 2023 through social media. Source: Yonhap News Agency