The authorities of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation have announced that they have arrested "Silk Road 2.0" operator Blake Benthall, used the alias "Defcon"
in California on Wednesday and charged him with conspiracy to commit
drug trafficking, computer hacking, money laundering and other crimes.
Silk Road 2, an alternative to the notorious online illegal-drug
marketplace that went dark in October of 2013, has been seized in a
joint action involving the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and
European law enforcement.
"As alleged, Blake Benthall attempted to resurrect Silk Road, a secret website that law enforcement seized last year, by running Silk Road 2.0, a nearly identical criminal enterprise," Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. "Let’s be clear—this Silk Road, in whatever form, is the road to prison. Those looking to follow in the footsteps of alleged cybercriminals should understand that we will return as many times as necessary to shut down noxious online criminal bazaars. We don’t get tired."
The arrest comes almost a year after the arrest of a San Francisco man Ross William Ulbricht, also known as "Dread Pirate Roberts,"
— the alleged founder of the dark Web online drug bazaar "Silk Road"
that generated $8 million in monthly sales and attracted 150,000 vendors
and customers. At that time, FBI seized the notorious site, but the
very next month, a nearly identical site, Silk Road 2.0, opened for
business.
The Feds and the US Department of Justice claim 26-year-old Blake
Benthall launched the notorious Silk Road 2.0 on Nov. 6, 2013, five
weeks after the shutdown of the original Silk Road website and arrest of
its alleged operator.
Benthall appeared Thursday afternoon in federal court before Magistrate
Judge Jaqueline Scott Corley, where Assistant US Attorney Kathryn Haun
told the judge that Benthall is a "severe flight risk," according to the
San Francisco Chronicle.
Benthall is charged with conspiring to commit narcotics trafficking,
conspiring to commit computer hacking, conspiring to traffic in
fraudulent identification documents and money laundering. If convicted,
he could be sentenced to life in prison.
Silk Road 2.0 operated much the same way as its predecessor did, it sold
illegal goods and services on the Tor network and generates millions of
dollars each month. As of September 2014, Benthall allegedly processed
$8 Million in monthly sales, according to the FBI.
In order to maintain the the anonymity of buyers and sellers, Silk Road
2.0 offers transactions to be made entirely in Bitcoin, as well as
accessed through The Onion Router, or TOR, which conceals Internet
Protocol (IP) addresses enabling users to hide their identities and
locations.
According to the FBI, it bought 1 kilogram of heroin, 5 kilograms of
cocaine, and 10 grams of LSD from Silk Road 2.0, apparently from
Benthall himself.
"The offerings on Silk Road 2.0 consisted overwhelmingly of illegal drugs, which were openly advertised as such on the site. As of October 17, 2014, Silk Road 2.0 had over 13,000 listings for controlled substances," reads the complaint.
"Silk Road 2.0 had over 13,000 listings for controlled substances,
including, among others, 1,783 listings for 'Psychedelics,' 1,697
listings for'“Ecstasy,' 1,707 listings for 'Cannabis,' and 379 listings
for 'Opioids,'."
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