14 DAY TRIAL // Nowadays, the Internet is amongst the most accessible and popular means of communication. However, it is also used for many dishonest purposes, and we're not referring to the crimes strictly related to the cyber space.
Thus, according to Reuters, police in Brazil arrested a gang of drug dealers who were using Google's popular Orkut social networking site to sell ecstasy and marijuana, as reported by Gregg Keizer for TechWeb News.
"We discovered the drug ring first via authorized phone tapping, and later the investigation included monitoring of their activities on the Internet," said a Drugs Enforcement Service officer to Reuters.
Google released a short statement in response. "We are aware of the situation and are currently looking into it. When we are made aware of situations that are against our terms of service we take appropriate action.", but a spokesman declined to answer any additional questions.
It seems that the alleged criminals used Orkut to establish a members-only group dedicated to the drug dealing, and then traded messages to pitch and purchase the goods.
Orkut, named after the Turkish engineer who created it, Orkut Buyukkokten, is a network developed by Google to compete with other services of the same type, as for example Friendster, LinkedIn, and MySpace. Like those competitors, Orkut lets users create circles of friends and virtual discussion groups, as well as share photos, but, following the same model as in the case of Gmail, it is available only by invitation from a current member.