[2020-01-31] Senior Adviser / Operator Of The “Silk Road” Website Pleads Guilty

[Betwrong]

@Betwrong. It was administered by a person who is not a criminal. He was a physics major, a scientist and he has created the Silk Road to be an experiment on real freedom on the internet. It was not only for the drugs. I reckon the American government punished him severely out of fear of creating a people's movement.

I don't know, what they were fearing of, but what I do know is that this system will collapse pretty soon if guys like Ross Ulbricht will be sentenced to a double life sentence plus forty years without the possibility of parole, and, at the same time, convicted terrorists will be released from jail after serving several years, only to be convicted of a further terrorist offence later.

[1715042417]

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[malevolent]

He seems like a waaay sleazier character than Ross

I see you are adjusting your, frankly, rather spoilt and ungrateful attitude towards Ross Ulbricht's contribution to the Bitcoin phenomenon. I might venture that Ross wasn't at all sleazy in way, shape or form, and in fact showed a great deal of moral and principled fortitude in creating/briefly running the Silk Road website.

Agreeing with Variety Jones to pay someone (in this case people employed by the USA) to have several people killed definitely does make him at least a bit of a sleazy person.

[bbc.reporter]

@Betwrong. It was administered by a person who is not a criminal. He was a physics major, a scientist and he has created the Silk Road to be an experiment on real freedom on the internet. It was not only for the drugs. I reckon the American government punished him severely out of fear of creating a people's movement.

I don't know, what they were fearing of, but what I do know is that this system will collapse pretty soon if guys like Ross Ulbricht will be sentenced to a double life sentence plus forty years without the possibility of parole, and, at the same time, convicted terrorists will be released from jail after serving several years, only to be convicted of a further terrorist offence later.

The government is fearful of people meeting together to talk and in time begin creating their own ideology. How do you think the Americans began their movement to revolt versus the British?

[zakoliverz]

I'm not one to gloat over anyone's misfortune - but I have observed that often - if you live life badly - in many ways you seal your own fate - due to the bad choices you made - and the people who you ran over - on the road to where ever it was you were going to - in such a hurry - and for that there must be some payback.

[eaLiTy]

The government is fearful of people meeting together to talk and in time begin creating their own ideology. How do you think the Americans began their movement to revolt versus the British?

Usually the enforcement authorities will participate in these events in disguise to monitor the event if it has gained traction and DEF CON is one such event where all the major law enforcement authorities participate from the FBI, USPIS, DHS, Department of Defense to name a few to follow the trends and innovations they bring up in these gatherings.

You can jail everyone who deal with narcotics, and fill the jails with such people. But it is not going to work.

The fear of spending the rest of your life inside a prison will deter many away from doing these kind of activities and that is a reality.

Dark markets will remain as long as the demand is there. And with time, they will get more innovative. The governments should treat drug usage as individual choice.

This is not going to happen as you cannot declare drug usage as individual choices, the idea is to stop new users starting to use drugs and the main problem with dark market is that children can very well get hold of these easily.

[Carlton Banks]

Agreeing with Variety Jones to pay someone (in this case people employed by the USA) to have several people killed definitely does make him at least a bit of a sleazy person.

that's an unsubstantiated allegation


the fact that those chat logs were in any way authentic at all is impossible to prove, you're simply trusting that members of the investigating FBI team when they say "we recorded this private chat on the Silk Road website's server". It would be very easy to produce a bunch of chatlogs that never took place, there is no meaningful way to prove authenticity for such data. And the FBI have an entirely appalling record for falsifying evidence in all manner of cases, stretching back several decades


why are you repeating this allegation as if it was fact, when in reality there is no proof whatsoever? In an investigation prosecuted by a known-corrupt enforcement agency?

[bbc.reporter]

The skeptical me would think that some criminal drug syndicates might have helped the FBI on the framing of Ross and the takedown of the Silk Road. It was becoming very big and was beginning to be a brand name for drugs and the Dread Pirate Roberts persona an icon on the internet.

[Vishnu.Reang]

The skeptical me would think that some criminal drug syndicates might have helped the FBI on the framing of Ross and the takedown of the Silk Road. It was becoming very big and was beginning to be a brand name for drugs and the Dread Pirate Roberts persona an icon on the internet.

Silk Road made available high quality drugs at cheap rates. Now just think who lost their profits as a result of this. A few that comes to my mind are Mexican drug cartels, street drug vendors, pharma giants, big banks such as HSBC (who help to launder the money from cartels).etc. Like it or not, but Silk Road helped to avoid thousands of deaths due to overdose.

[Harlot]

The skeptical me would think that some criminal drug syndicates might have helped the FBI on the framing of Ross and the takedown of the Silk Road. It was becoming very big and was beginning to be a brand name for drugs and the Dread Pirate Roberts persona an icon on the internet.

There is a lot of possibilities here but I don't see the "competition" angle as one of the possibilities here. Drug syndicates have a different market compared to the ones being handled by their Silk Road, their operations are more violent and is their transactions require for your to physically appear, Silk Road on the other hand is different in the senses that their customers are mostly users not dealers. Other than that I haven't seen any threats to Ulbricht and Roger Clark by these criminals which says that they don't really care about him being in the scene. Silk Road was bound to close especially when their operations are under one of the government's project, they obviously have the power to monitor the activities of that site and they can also track them down.

[gentlemand]

The skeptical me would think that some criminal drug syndicates might have helped the FBI on the framing of Ross and the takedown of the Silk Road. It was becoming very big and was beginning to be a brand name for drugs and the Dread Pirate Roberts persona an icon on the internet.

Silk Road was end stage retail. A bunch of internet libertarians do not go out and secure their own refining of opium and coca paste. It all comes from the same sources and distribution.

Had it survived I'm sure the druggist heavyweights would've been delighted to keep supplying markets that otherwise wouldn't exist.

That's my main beef with it. I'm sure it prevented some street level unpleasantness. It did nothing to combat the blood letting in the production and distribution process. If it had been my pet I would've done my very best to link user directly to maker which I guess would mean no coke or heroin.

Selling his own shrooms is how the whole thing started.

[figmentofmyass]

That's my main beef with it. I'm sure it prevented some street level unpleasantness. It did nothing to combat the blood letting in the production and distribution process.

drug prohibition makes that sort of violence inevitable. there isn't much that marketplaces can do to alleviate that.

If it had been my pet I would've done my very best to link user directly to maker

what else could have been done? it's a matter of free markets. ross built it; it's up to the producers to come. for all we know, SR did link consumers directly with producers.

[gentlemand]

what else could have been done? it's a matter of free markets. ross built it; it's up to the producers to come. for all we know, SR did link consumers directly with producers.

I'm sure he did. But his ethos was also about selling things that didn't hurt or harm other people. That's not to mean the drugs themselves, that's on whoever takes it and go for it if that's your thing, but a kilo of coke or heroin has more horror mixed into it than the stolen items he wouldn't allow sold.

Hooking people up with others who make acid, meth, speed, MDMA etc. is fine with me. The other stuff did not come out of some guy's garage.

[figmentofmyass]

what else could have been done? it's a matter of free markets. ross built it; it's up to the producers to come. for all we know, SR did link consumers directly with producers.

I'm sure he did. But his ethos was also about selling things that didn't hurt or harm other people. That's not to mean the drugs themselves, that's on whoever takes it and go for it if that's your thing, but a kilo of coke or heroin has more horror mixed into it than the stolen items he wouldn't allow sold.

Hooking people up with others who make acid, meth, speed, MDMA etc. is fine with me. The other stuff did not come out of some guy's garage.

were people actually selling kilos of coke and heroin retail on SR? i always thought it was much more of a recreational scene. i have a friend who used to buy eighths of weed there. i never actually used it myself---too sketched out about having drugs mailed to my house.

[gentlemand]

were people actually selling kilos of coke and heroin retail on SR? i always thought it was much more of a recreational scene. i have a friend who used to buy eighths of weed there. i never actually used it myself---too sketched out about having drugs mailed to my house.

Aye. Curtis Green, the bloke who was 'assassinated' by the bent DEA agent by being photographed with chicken soup on his chin and pretending to be dead was busted having been sent a kilo of coke. Probably by the DEA though.

I seem to recall some pretty high turnovers from real people.

The amounts don't really matter, it all comes from the same source, but possibly the same DEA guy was proposing the Masters of Silk Road or something that was going to be some type of wholesale operation. It was probably total hogwash but was under consideration.

[Vishnu.Reang]

were people actually selling kilos of coke and heroin retail on SR? i always thought it was much more of a recreational scene. i have a friend who used to buy eighths of weed there. i never actually used it myself---too sketched out about having drugs mailed to my house.

Weed is becoming increasingly legal across the globe. Many of the US states have legalized it and so if you are ready to travel, then you can legally purchase weed without any harassment from the cops. But the same isn't true with the other soft drugs such as LSD and coke. And ironically, lethal drugs such as fentanyl are popular in those states where soft drugs such as weed are not legal.

[bbc.reporter]

were people actually selling kilos of coke and heroin retail on SR? i always thought it was much more of a recreational scene. i have a friend who used to buy eighths of weed there. i never actually used it myself---too sketched out about having drugs mailed to my house.

Aye. Curtis Green, the bloke who was 'assassinated' by the bent DEA agent by being photographed with chicken soup on his chin and pretending to be dead was busted having been sent a kilo of coke. Probably by the DEA though.

I seem to recall some pretty high turnovers from real people.

The amounts don't really matter, it all comes from the same source, but possibly the same DEA guy was proposing the Masters of Silk Road or something that was going to be some type of wholesale operation. It was probably total hogwash but was under consideration.

He might be a DEA informant from the very beginning. The murder was clearly used to frame Ross.

@Vishnu.Reang. LSD and cocaine are not soft drugs. LSD is dangerous because it causes extreme hallucinations. Cocaine is one of the most addicitve drug in the world. However, agreed that they are less dangerous than Fentanyl and Fentanyl derivatives.

[malevolent]

The murder was clearly used to frame Ross.

(Alleged...) attempted murders

LSD is dangerous because it causes extreme hallucinations.

How are these supposed to make it dangerous? Not really dangerous unless abused.

[gentlemand]

How are these supposed to make it dangerous? Not really dangerous unless abused.

I can think of a couple of people who were severely fucked up by it, as in the lights being on but no one really being home any more. They went from bright young things to people who sit in their bedrooms and rarely open their mouths. One turned out like that after being dosed once. The other caned it for a few weeks and never came back either.

They were possibly predisposed to psychiatric problems, but I've always been a bit amazed at how willing people are to tamper with their infinitely delicate brain chemistry. I'll never touch it.

[bbc.reporter]

@malevolent. Yes it is arguable if dangerous or not, however, I reckon we can agree that it is not a soft drug.

Also, did you know that the Unabomber was part of a CIA mindcontrol, LSD experiment in Harvard.

[Vishnu.Reang]

@Vishnu.Reang. LSD and cocaine are not soft drugs. LSD is dangerous because it causes extreme hallucinations. Cocaine is one of the most addicitve drug in the world. However, agreed that they are less dangerous than Fentanyl and Fentanyl derivatives.

I have never heard about anyone dying of overdose from LSD or cocaine (unlike the case with synthetic opioids). If LSD can give hallucinations without serious side effects, then it is less dangerous, right? And this is one of the reasons why I am in favor of legalization of soft drugs. Here by grouping soft drugs with lethal ones manufactured by the pharma mafia, the government is actually increasing the harm.