GPS Dead Drops

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GPS Dead Drops

Dead drops can be a good way to move products in a regional setting. Merely use a GPS device and pin point a location, then drop the product in the area. I suggest you go with one of two techniques. The first technique is to do the drop in the middle of the woods, and bury the product under the ground with a marker of some sort put on top of it. The second technqiue is to drop the product in more urban areas. Some technqiues that can be used for urban areas include: product in magnetic boxes stuck to the under part of dumpsters, paper products in books at libraries, weighted containers in the back of public toilets. I suggest you pre-drop containers prior to transactions being made, and record the dead drop coordinates. Sell people the dead drop coordinates, via asymmetrically encrypted E-mails. After receiving the coordinates, the person can use a GPS device to find the dead dropped container. The dead dropper remains safe, because they are long gone by the time the customer gets to the dead drop. The customer stays safe because they can allow the dead drop to cool off after purchasing the location, making manned surveillance cost prohibitive. Make sure you leave no forensic evidence in dead drop containers, and are away from cameras during the drop. Also, make sure that you don't do a drop in an area where it is likely to be stumbled upon by a random person. Know the limitations of the product you are dead dropping. Some products will degrade rapidly outside of controlled environments. A great many products will remain stable in a well placed dead drop indefinetely though.

GPS dead drops have advantages and disadvantages when compared to the mail.

Advantages

Greatly reduced chance of interception. The product does not go through a third party facility, so a third party is much less likely to find it.

No requirement for fake identification. Dead drops can be done anywhere anonymously, a mail box is not required.

Plausible deniability. You can easily say that you stumbled upon a dead drop, in most situations.

Neutralities

As with mail boxes, the sender of product will know the location and can do surveillance. This is not quite as risky as with mail though, as there is more plausible deniability.

Disadvantages=

Dead drops can only realistically be used for transfers in a regional area

Some products will degrade pretty quickly in dead drops, as they are in a less controlled environment than mail

Dead drops require the sender to go to a location that the receiver will go to. This means leaving forensic trace evidence is more likely. Forensic trace evidence can also be left in the dead drop container. I suggest to semi-counter this, that dead drops be done prior to transactions. As time passes, forensic evidence left at the scene of the drop will be reduced.

The dead dropper is probably slighlty more likely to be on camera, and will stick out more than a mailer dropping a package in the same box as a dozen others.

Dead drops in the woods will not give a recipient adequate time to leave the area after pick up is made. This is particularly dangerous, as manned surveillance is not required with trip wires and tracking devices in the container. Dead drops in urban areas are more likely to be on camera.

There is some chance that a third party will stumble upon your dead drop, but this risk can be greatly minimized.

Over all I think that dead drops can be used with a large deal of success for local and regional product transfers. It is a fairly unexplored field though, and trial and error is unfortunately yet to narrow down reliable techniques. Some things that I can think of immediately that should be avoided:

1. Do not have a cellphone on you when you do dead drops or pick up dead drops. GPS is receive only technology, so it can not be used to determine your location to a third party. Cell phones can determine your location to a third party, and a smart adversary will check cellphone locations compared to GPS drop locations.

2. Follow the same precautions you would follow when mailing a package, when you dead drop a container

3. Take care to disguise the container to blend into the area. Perhaps there can be a market for dead drop containers, designed to blend in to various environments?

4. Use a WAAS capable GPS device. This will give you accuracy down to around three meters.