Silk Road Founder Will Face Charges in New York

[DreamTheater]

A federal judge ordered a California man accused of operating an Internet drug marketplace dubbed Silk Road to go to New York to face charges. The order came during a brief court hearing in San Francisco. Federal authorities in New York have charged Ross Ulbricht, the site operator, with three felonies related to the operation of the service. Ulbricht's attorney has denied all charges.

 

 

Silk Road became known a couple years ago as a black market bazaar where users could trade drugs for BitCoins, a form of online cash. A “hidden†site used Tor network to mask the location of its servers. Thus far, the site operator agreed to remain in custody. The police have said he ran the service under various aliases, including “Dread Pirate Robertsâ€. However, his attorney denied this information.

 

Silk Road became so popular because other services were selling drugs more or less openly. In the meantime, Silk Road was technically sophisticated, had user-friendly system and promised near-total anonymity. The authorities closed down the website when they arrested Ulbricht at a small library in San Francisco while he chatted online with a “co-operating witnessâ€.

 

In addition, Ulbricht is also charged in Baltimore federal court with soliciting the murder of a former employee, who was arrested on drug charges. It is suggested that Ulbricht feared the victim would turn on him. The police claimed that Ulbricht unwittingly hired an undercover agent for the murder, which the authorities staged but never took place.

 

In the meantime, prosecutors in New York have charged the site operator with trying unsuccessfully to solicit the murder of a Canadian citizen who allegedly hacked into Silk Road, obtained dealers names and started blackmailing Ulbricht.

 

It turned out that the FBI agents have penetrated the behind-the-scenes operations of the website and obtained a list of its users and sellers. In the following days, the police in Britain, Sweden and the US arrested 8 people charged with using the service for selling drugs. For example, in Washington state, a couple was arrested on charges of selling cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine via Silk Road. The UK authorities indicated more arrests were on the way. The FBI claimed that it had copy of the contents of the website’s server, which could provide international authorities with detailed data about the website’s dealers.

 

Apparently, months’ worth of sales history are currently in law enforcement hands. As a result, the traceable nature of BitCoin transfers can allow the FBI to easily follow the money.