Unnecessarily Capitalizing 'T' On Grindr Could Mean You Want Meth
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Mic reports Grindr users have a subtle code for indicating meth needs/availability: needlessly capitalizing the letter “T.” Encountering a message such as “laTe nighT partying” could be a sign a user wants to sell, share, or buy meth.
Grindr’s cousins Scruff and Jack’d apparently also use the code, which is short for Tina: methamphetamine -> crystal meth -> Christina -> Tina. Former Who's the Boss? child star Danny Pintauro says meth is the boss on Grindr, where “one of every ten guys on there is either doing crystal, has done crystal, or wants to do crystal."
Some Dealers Use Proxies With Bluetooth Earpieces
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- Arrested Development
- 20th Television
Bluetooth earpieces aren’t just for Uber drivers and egomaniacs on the bus. The Atlantic reported in 2014 on a drug dealer named “Viktor” who raked in $32k/month with the help of his trusty Bluetooth. But Viktor wasn’t the one sporting the tech: when meeting new clients, he hired surrogates to make deals while wearing the earpiece.
From miles away, Viktor told the surrogate exactly what to say and do, listening in on the exchange while safeguarding his privacy until forging a better client-dealer relationship.
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The Right Instagram Hashtag Can Connect You To A Dealer
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On Instagram, dealers use perfectly legal techniques to hide their identities and locations from prying eyes, enabling you to find their Insta-shops by searching for hashtags such as #xanaxforsale, #kush4sale, #OGKush, and many, many others.
Since online dealing is fraught with legal dangers, some dealers use the service as a glorified ad, hooking them up with real-life buyers in their area. Done correctly, app-based dealing offers massive exposure at little risk, as well as allowing savvy dealers to screen potential customers ahead of time.
Some Dealers Use Old Nokia 8210s
- Photo:
- krystof.k
- Wikimedia Commons
- CC BY SA 3.0
If you see someone in your neighborhood sporting an old Nokia 8210, they may just love retro tech or deeply miss the Snake Game, but there’s a good chance they’re dealing drugs, too, according to techdirt. Why the 8210? “Every dealer I know uses old phones, and the Nokia 8210 is the one everyone wants because of how small it is and how long the battery lasts,” one anonymous dealer told Vice.
Not only is the 8210 durable and cheap, it lasts an astounding 50 to 150 hours on standby mode. Most importantly, it doesn’t have WiFi, Bluetooth, or any other means of connectivity besides, obviously, its connection to cell towers.
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Shoe Tossing May Or May Not Mean Something
There's a fair amount of disagreement as to whether or not shoe tossing - the custom of tying two shoes together by the laces and throwing them over a telephone wire - means anything in the drug world. According to io9, Snopes debunked the myth of shoe tossing as an indication of drug dealing activity. However, Snopes only explicitly debunks shoes-on-wires as a sign of gang turf or activity, and, as you may know, gangs aren't the only enterprises that sell drugs.
A 2003 letter from the office of the mayor of Los Angeles states "Many Los Angeles residents fear that these shoes indicate sites at which drugs are sold..." While the fears of residents hardly confirm a direct association between shoe tossing and drug dealers, the city and community organizations undertook a massive effort to cut down shoes from telephone wires all over East Los Angeles. However, the Snohomish Regional Drug & Gang Task Force of Everett, WA, which deals mostly with meth labs, claims to have never seen shoe tossing as an indication of drug availability or dealer activity.
Regardless of whether shoe tossing is connected to drug dealing in some instances, that's hardly the only thing it indicates. Shoes hanging from wires may indicate lost virginity, someone in the military passing basic training, school graduation, an upcoming marriage, or death. It's also possible someone got fed up with their shoes and decided to do something fun with them.
'Elbow' Is A Pound Of Weed, Among Lots Of Code Words
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Lou Savelli, founder of the NYPD’s gang unit, compiled 5,000-plus words and phrases of gang slang for a book called Gang Related: Signs, Signals and Slang of Modern Gangs and Organized Crime. Many, naturally, are drug-related, and pretty clever. An “elbow,” for example, is slang for a pound of weed (or at least it was at one point during Savelli’s long career; a lot of his work was during the ‘90s.) Why an “elbow”? It’s a offshoot of “lb.”
Some other terms in Savelli's dictionary include fat boris (a man who poses as a woman online to scam people), drinking milk (targeting or killing a rival), and Picasso (slicing up someone's face in prison).
Pocket Flashlights Signal Potential Buyers
In 2002, the Washington City Paper reported on a code dealers were using in DC. Wielding pocket-sized or keychain flashlights, dealers flashed to oncoming cars, signaling drug availability to potential buyers and warning other dealers of police in the area. Sometimes, a color code was used to help buyers. "Red [lights] means the police are coming, blue is for cocaine, and green is for weed,” a former dealer told the paper.
Some Dealers Advertise 'Pain Relief' On Craigslist
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Even after the NYPD busted 21 dealers for selling on Craigslist in 2012, it’s shockingly easy to find them on the site. The Daily Dot reports heroin has also been sold on the site as "pain relief" and "high quality diesel pain relief," among other terms and listings.
Dealers Use Graffiti To Mark Safe Spaces For Selling And Using
A letter from a reader published in the Simi Valley Acorn, an Agoura Hills, CA-based publication, describes drug dealers using graffiti on buildings with around-the-back parking to indicate safe spaces for deals. Graffiti visible from a main road appeared one day on the side of a building. Thereafter, a number of strange cars showed up at all hours. Eventually, it became clear these people were meeting for drug deals in the building's around-the-back lot, which is invisible to prying eyes on the main road or sidewalks.
The graffiti was erased and quickly replaced by more. The building was residential, and dealers and buyers paid no mind to tenants. Foot traffic arrived along with dealers and buyers in cars. If any tenants called the police, dealers took off when the cops arrived in the area, and came back later by foot or in different cars.
Weird Parking Arrangements Can Be A Sign
Perhaps you've seen someone park, then walk a considerable distance to a building or house with plenty of open spaces nearby. Why not just park near the house or building in the first place, rather than do all that walking? As it turns out, drug dealers don't like cars piling up in front of their spots, and neither do drug buyers like pulling right up to a dealer's home.
It's hardly weird to see a lot of people walking, but a lot of people parking and then walking around corners or considerable distances, especially at odd times of the day, may indicate the presence of a drug den and dealer nearby.
'Mom And Pop' Convenience Stores Can Be Hubs
- Photo:
- roeyahram
- flickr
- CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0
Each of the seven locations examined in a detailed 2005 study of the open-air drug trade in Cincinnati were centered near locally-owned “Mom and Pop” convenience stores. The study concluded these stores “facilitate open-air drug dealing” in several ways. Not only can dealers solicit store customers, but they can also use the store as a cover story, for food and shelter, and to buy (legal) paraphernalia for smoking crack.
Since none of these behaviors are technically illegal, it’s hard to regulate them, especially when store owners “play a direct role” and willingly stock small glass vials and scouring pads, easily modified for crack-smoking.
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Lampin' Means Selling Under A Street-Light
Another term brought to light by ex-NYPD gang division founder Lou Savelli is "lampin'," which dates from the 1960s. It’s slightly more obscure than some of the other words in his collection, such as bling, chilling, and po-po, but it’s common enough to pop up in a Kanye West song in 2004. In a drug dealing context, Savelli says it refers to “hanging out under a street-light, usually where drugs are sold.”
Savelli told the New York Post, “That’s what kids do — that’s their turf, their territory.” Local, low-level drug dealing is built around lampin'. But do everyone a favor and don't just assume some kids hanging around a street light are drug dealers.
Cheap Motels Offer A Safeguard
- Photo:
- MortAuPat
- flickr
- CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0
There’s a reason movies and TV shows set shady drug deals in cheap motels: it’s accurate. In a 1994 report, the Chicago police department revealed these deals are so common, the department had “strategy books with flow charts that trace specific habits and methods of these operations.”
Why motels? Mid-level dealers like the technique because it’s a cheap way to distance themselves from product. By renting multiple rooms, including dummy rooms they never use, dealers can make transactions in one room, store the product in another, and, if all goes according to plan, stymie police interference. It's difficult, for instance, for police to obtain search warrants for multiple hotel rooms, “since they are not sure when or where drugs are being sold or where drugs are being stored.”
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