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NEW YORK CITY — The FBI has shut down one of the largest online illegal drug markets in the world. The so-called “Silk Road” was run via the Tor network, a free tool that bounces around web traffic, making it all but impossible to track users and content.
The FBI had been watching Ross William Ulbricht, 29, since January of 2011. Ulbricht, who also allegedly went by the moniker “Dread Pirate Roberts”, was the driving force behind the day-to-day activities of the Silk Road, which allowed users to buy and sell drugs online, as well as participate in numerous other felonious activities in a format similar to Ebay.
Ulbricht, who operated his dealings out of New York City, was arrested at a library in San Francisco Tuesday while he was managing operations on his laptop. The offenses he is accused of facilitating are outlined in a criminal complaint filed by the FBI obtained by several news outlets, including The Guardian.
“From or about January 2011 up to or including September 2013, Ross William Ulbricht, the defendant, owned and operated an underground website, known as ‘Silk Road’, providing a platform for facilitating the sale of illicit goods and services, including malicious software designed for computer hacking, such as password stealers, keyloggers, and remote access tools,” the FBI document states.
The Silk Road was the largest networks of its kind, raking in billions of dollars in revenue over its lifetime. The FBI agent responsible for the arrest, Christopher Tarbell, said in the criminal complaint that he had been monitoring the network's dealings expansively throughout the investigation.
The stress of being DPR (Dread Pirate Roberts) is sometimes overwhelming. What keeps me going is the understanding that what we are doing here is more important than my insignificant little life.
–Ross Ulbricht
"Based on my training, Silk Road has emerged as the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet today," Tarbell said. "The site sought to make conducting illegal transactions as easy and frictionless as shoppping online at mainstream e-commerce websites."
Two weeks ago, a similar network called The Atlantis was also shut down by the FBI. In an anonymous interview, Ulbricht said he was alarmed by the arrest.
“There has been more than one occasion where I have wanted to quit as well,” Ulbricht said. “Without going into details, the stress of being DPR (Dread Pirate Roberts) is sometimes overwhelming. What keeps me going is the understanding that what we are doing here is more important than my insignificant little life. I believe what we are doing will have rippling effects for generations to come and could be part of a monumental shift in how human beings organize and relate to one another.”
Charges filed against Ulbricht include narcotics trafficking conspiracy and computer hacking conspiracy.
