Earlier this year, !Mediengruppe Bitnik, a Switzerland-based art group, launched an experiment that allowed a bot to make random purchases on the dark web using bitcoin.

The items are currently being featured in a Horatio Jr gallery exhibit in Rotherhithe, London.

With a spending limit of $100 in bitcoins per week, the machine scours the online black market for anything within its configured budget. After the transaction, the item is shipped to the group for further scrunity and processing.

The first set of purchases included a firecracker worth $7.00 and a fake designer shirt. However, the bot drew attention to itself after it bought a bag of ecstasy pills or MDMAs.

Police who were assigned to the case were baffled at who should be held responsible for the unconventional drug deal.

“It was a bit unclear who they could press charges against,” said Carmen Weisskopf, one of the creators of the bot. “They were unwilling to press charges against the bot. They decided that within the realm of art it should be possible to look at such things within an exhibition.”

During the bust, the robot was taken into custody by the St Gallen public prosecutor’s office. After a few months of deliberation, the charges were dropped by the officials.

Although the artists created the algorithms that the risky bot was running on during the bitcoin transactions, the code did not specifically indicate to seek out drugs. Because of this, the group cannot be directly charged for the incident.

“A lot of the thing for sale are really pop culture items that people between 18 and 30 are interested in - the sneakers or jeans you need to have, or ebooks or hardware,” highlighted Domago Smoljom, a representative from the group.