DARKMARKET

to establish Dron's whereabouts. The vendor was using the Israeli email service Safemail, because he knew that the company blocked the sender's IP address, which meant that the recipient could not track him down. The Secret Service finally got its break in January 2006 when Safemail agreed to release Dron's IP addresses after the US SS's request had forced its way through Israel's dilatory criminal-justice system. Dron, it turned out, was using a variety of computers located throughout the Calgary area in Canada's oil-boom province, Alberta.

The next eighteen months were to prove an exacting period for Detective Spencer Frizzell of the Calgary Police Service. The Secret Service offices in Buffalo and Vancouver would provide him with one IP address, which they received from Safemail each time the undercover agent exchanged an email with Dron. These addresses always belonged to some Internet café or other. By the time he had actually located the place, the bird had of course flown. Until he started on this case, Detective Frizzell had no idea that there were so many Internet cafés in Calgary or how popular they were. He felt increasingly as if he were looking for a needle in a haystack.

For months, Dron's use of Internet cafés appeared to be random. One day he would pop up here, the next day three miles away. Sometimes he disappeared from Calgary altogether, raising the fear that he was gone for good. But he always returned and, after several months, Frizzell had a major breakthrough. Pinning flags on a map, he spotted that all of Dron's Internet cafés were close to the stops on Calgary's Light Rail Transit, on the line that runs from Somerset to Crowfoot. He also noted two or three shops that Dron seemed to favour.

That meant he had enough information to apply for a surveillance team. He came up against the usual objections that cybercops the world over encounter. Who are the victims in Calgary? What is your evidence of turnover due to criminal activity?

Frizzell received his authorisation, but only for a limited period and with very few human resources. Generally, when he received a tip-off from the Secret Service that Dron was online, he would grab anyone he could from the office and head out for somewhere along the Light Rail Transit.

The Calgary detective performed a heroic job for more than a year, slowly narrowing down the suspects until he was convinced he had the man. What he didn't know was that he was at just one of the sharp