Editor's Note: Names have been changed to protect the identity of the subjects.
While the ancient Silk Road connected European and Asian countries, the modern Silk Road provides a much darker trade route. It's an online marketplace that specializes in anything but silk.
Eric, user of the website, said anyone can find a number of illegal drugs such as acid, mushrooms, molly, GHB, marijuana, heroin, cocaine, crack or anything else on the Silk Road's site.
After making a selection from a seller, the illegal product is shipped through the United States Postal Service.
"They arrive in different packaging depending on the vendor," Eric said. "Most of the time, it will be in an air-tight package labeled as pet food."
Josh, a friend of Eric's, said he has seen packages from the Silk Road get misplaced within the USPS system.
"We ordered a shipment of mushrooms, and it never came in," Josh said. "We went into the post office around 3 a.m. with a pair of (cooking) tongs and grabbed the mail out of the surrounding P.O. boxes just to make sure no one else got it."
Tony Brown, supervisor of customer service, has worked for USPS for the last 20 years and said that drugs have been found in Memphis and metropolitan post offices a couple of times.
Although the FBI shut down the original site in October, it was brought back online less than a month later. However, it takes more than a Google search to access the site. Timothy Hnat, a computer science professor at the University of Memphis, said it's part of the deep web. In order to pull up the Silk Road, a specific browser called Tor must be used.
Eric said moving the drug trade online has made it possible for sellers and buyers to feel safer.
"In the streets, you take more of a risk in getting ripped off or robbed, especially here in Memphis," Eric said. "They'll shoot you over $100 or $50."
For some users, gone are the days of meeting up in public, waiting around for someone to show up or buying from an undercover cop, according to Eric.
Although Eric thinks the drug scene has changed for the better, post offices and authorities are dedicated to bring the online black market down for good.
"The postal inspectors come in and pull (security) tapes when they have heard that someone is selling drugs and using the mail," Brown said. "They watch as the package is taken into the office and who is sending it."
Once the package is delivered, local police arrest both the sender and receiver.
"We are always on the lookout for suspicious packages," Brown said.
