Churn, hubs and hybrid fulfilment: link-tracing Telegram drug-market ecologies from London and Warsaw

Purpose

This study aims to examine how drug-market activity on Telegram is organised through digitally mediated but physically grounded practices, and how volatility and partial visibility shape what can be known about these markets.

Design/methodology/approach

The work uses an iterative, three-level link-tracing scrape of public Telegram channels anchored in city-specific entry points (London/UK and Warsaw/Poland) and conducted in two waves (March and May, 2024) capturing channel metadata and messages from public channels, and recording private channels encountered via links. This is the basis for a descriptive analysis of channel network and activity, and a closer description of two sales bots.

Findings

Across both entry points, a sizeable, heterogeneous market is observed, but one that is difficult to bound because discovery is highly dependent on a small number of “hub” channels. The network contracted sharply between March and May, especially in London, indicating high churn and the fragility of entry pathways. Private channels comprised a substantial share of the networks. Channel descriptions combined drug advertising with trust/security signalling and, in Warsaw, frequent “roleplay” disclaimers suggestive of platform-facing self-protection. Evidence of cross-platform linking and bot-mediated storefronts indicates hybrid infrastructures with physical fulfilment.

Originality/value

This study characterise Telegram’s drug-market network as marked by churn and with volatile key nodes, documenting linkages that blur digital/physical boundaries. It shows how small, short-lived channels coexist with a few high-visibility hubs and bots, and links these patterns to the dynamics of hybridity, volatility and partial visibility: factors that complicate both inference and intervention in app-mediated drug markets.