Its taken years for the FBI to catch up with the black market website Silk Road and shut them down. The black market drug sales have been going on for years and escaping the grips of federal criminal law enforcement while playing a simple cat and mouse game to avoid detection. The FBI is now accusing Ross William Ulbricht of criminal money laundering, narcotic trafficking and computer hacking. However, I am sure several more indictments are in the near future. Several online forums have previously suggested that Ulbricht is not the original owner and may not have been the owner at the time of this arrest. Sophisticated online software companies such as Tor are used in several of these black market drug operations. Tor is simply a software program to conceal your identity. It lets users publish a website without revealing the location of the site. Furthermore, individuals use Tor for social communications such at chat rooms and web forums.
Clearly Silk Roads administrator, who refers to himself as the “Dread Pirate Roberts” was mocking the federal government when he conducted an interview this past summer with Forbes. This worldwide drug trade initiated a criminal complaint from the feds that states they have generated $1.2 Billion in revenue since its creation in 2001 and generated $80 million in operator commissions. Winston Ross wrote an article on September 26, 2013 titled: “Silk Road Is the Ebay of the Online Drug Trade” less than a week later the site is taken down and an arrest.
One anonymous FBI agent states, “This is supposed to be some invisible black market bazaar. We made it visible.” What a pathetic statement! This site was known as the ebay of online drug trade! Everyone has known about Silk Road for years and for the FBI to take this long to break it up is an embarrassment. This is not a simple online marijuana black market trade business. Silk Road had over 10,000 listings for drugs which also included over 2000 strands of marijuana. Silk Road operated like an online mall for drug dealers. The dealers from all over the world would set up a shop and the buyers picked a store to make a purchase. The buyers will leave comments or reviews on the seller’s page about their experience. Ecstasy, Oxycodone, amphetamines, cocaine, LSD, opiates along with other non mainstream drugs/chemicals most people may have never heard of such as 2c-B, DMT, MXE, 5MEO, 4HOMIPT, 5-MeO-DMT were all for sale.
Even with the closure of Silk Road, several other sites still exist offering alternatives to Silk Road such as Black Market Reloaded, Atlantis (site recently taken down) sheep marketplace and medicine mans dispensary.
Andrew Moses
Andrew has been practicing criminal law his entire career. After graduating from law school he began working as an Assistant State Attorney prosecuting cases in Orange and Osceola Counties. During his time as an Assistant State Attorney, Andrew handled all types of cases ranging from misdemeanors to such serious felonies as drug trafficking and armed robbery. His experience as a prosecutor helped him gain perspective of the criminal justice system and how the government established its cases.
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