Identifying and prioritizing methods of police penetration in gangs and drug trafficking networks in cyberspace

the current research was conducted with the aim of identifying and prioritizing the methods of police infiltration in gangs and drug trafficking networks in cyberspace

The current research method was mixed or combined (qualitative + quantitative). The participants in the qualitative part of the present realization, who were selected using the purposeful sampling method and observing the principle of theoretical saturation, were 15 experts and specialists of the virtual space in Faraja. There were 33 people in the provinces. The method of data collection in the qualitative part was semi-structured interviews, and in the quantitative part, using a valid and reliable questionnaire made by the researcher, including 25 items. In order to analyze qualitative data, thematic analysis method was used in MAXQDA software, and for quantitative data analysis, mean, standard deviation, Kolmogorov Smirnov and non-parametric Friedman test were used in Spss software. 

6 organizing themes and 25 basic themes were identified as ways of infiltrating gangs and drug trafficking networks in cyberspace from the perspective of the participants. The average figures on a distance scale for police intrusion into gangs and drug trafficking networks in cyberspace, in order of priority of intrusion through creating remote access to the subject, infiltration through hacking the subject's virtual accounts, infiltration through social engineering, Infiltration was through virtual tracking of the subject, infiltration through system identification and tracking, and infiltration through cyber forensics.

The results showed that all the identified methods that can be used to infiltrate the police in gangs and drug trafficking networks in the virtual space, have the ability to be implemented and have a practical role in the missions, in this direction, creating the organizational structure of the fight. With narcotics in virtual space, the recruitment and training of expert and experienced human resources and the training of users and the improvement of their scientific level regarding the identified methods were proposed as the most important suggestions of the present research.