If you didn't know already. This will help you understand why BTC price is gonna crash for days now."Federal agents have shut down the underground Silk Road, a website used by dealers to buy and sell illegal drugs using virtual currency, and arrested a Texas man who they say operated the site.
FBI agents arrested Ross Ulbricht, allegedly known as "Dread Pirate Roberts" and "DPR," Tuesday in San Francisco. Ulbricht appeared in court briefly Wednesday morning, said Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney in New York.
Ulbricht is charged in New York with narcotics trafficking, computer hacking, soliciting a murder-for-hire and money laundering, according to a complaint unsealed Wednesday. Court documents allege that Ulbricht owned and operated since January 2011 an underground website known as "Silk Road" that gave drug dealers around the world a platform to sell heroin, cocaine, LSD and methamphetamine.
Ulbricht allegedly asked a Silk Road user on March 29 to murder another user who was threatening to release the names of thousands of Silk Road users, court papers say.
"Ulbricht has been willing to pursue violent means to maintain his control of the website and the illegal proceeds it generates for him," court papers say.
Users of the site on Wednesday saw a banner announcement with the logos of the Justice Department, FBI, IRS, Homeland Security and Drug Enforcement Administration and a message: "This hidden site has been seized."
FBI Agent Christopher Tarbell in an affidavit called the Silk Road website a "sprawling black-market bazaar where illegal drugs and other illicit goods and services" are regularly bought and sold. In In 30 months, the FBI estimates the site generated $1.2 billion in sales and $80 million in commissions for the operator.
The website operated on an underground computer network known as "The Onion Router" or "Tor," a special network of computers around the world that use complicated algorithms to disguise the unique internet addresses of each computer. Communications set through computers on the network bounce through a series of encrypted relays to make it extraordinarily difficult to trace the origin of the message.
Website users conducted transactions using an anonymous form of digital currency called "Bitcoins."
"Silk Road has emerged as the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet today," Tarbell wrote. "The site has sought to make conducting illegal transactions on the Internet as easy and frictionless as shopping online at mainstream e-commerce websites."
Federal agents say Ulbricht, under the alias Dread Pirate Roberts, a reference to a character in "The Princess Bride," controlled every aspect of the site, including the programming, maintenance, customer service and the massive profits.
FBI and other federal agents first tapped into the site in November 2011 and have made more than 100 undercover purchases of controlled substances, including ecstasy, cocaine, heroin and LSD, on the network. The drugs came from vendors located in the United States and at least 10 other countries, court papers say. Agents also purchased hacking services, including malicious software such as password stealing programs, the court papers say.
The site included listings for "illegal drugs of nearly every variety," Tarbell said in court papers. As of Sept. 23, FBI agents counted nearly 13,000 listings for items such as marijuana, ecstasy, opioids, prescription drugs, heroin and cocaine. One seller advertised "high quality #4 heroin all rock," court papers say.
FBI agents also found 159 listings for computer hacking and other services, such as hit men for hire and stolen credit card information.
Federal investigators also gained access to the site's servers to conduct forensic analysis that could trace buyers, sellers and the operator, court papers said"
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/02/fbi-shuts-down-silk-road-website/2909023/http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/02/228491496/fbi-arrests-owner-of-black-market-site-silk-roadhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24373759
