Its purpose was to investigate web sites suspected of distribution of unscheduled, unregulated tryptamines and phenethylamines of questionable legality.
This trade in "grey market" drugs, which were not explicitly illegal but potentially prosecutable as drug analogs, became known as the "research chemical" trade; a euphemism to suggest that the chemicals were being sold for industrial or academic research rather than human consumption.
[3] In 2005, a court ruled that AMT sold by pondman.nu caused the April 2002 death of an 18-year-old male in upstate New York and the site's owner was sentenced to 410 years in prison.
[3] In December 2004, using credit card information provided by the DEA, British police arrested 22 UK residents who had purchased 2C-I through the seized web sites (Operation Ismene).
[3] Although these chemicals were not yet scheduled, a long shadow was cast on their legality by the 1986 Federal Analog Act.