Someone who describes their self as a having been "hired by Dread Pirate Roberts a/k/a Blake Benthall as lead programmer for Silk Road 2.0" is offering for sale a dataset which they allege contains numerous record relating to and source code for running the Silk Road in its second incarnation. The first portion of the sale is occurring on Darkleaks, an information market which is advertised as being trustless and provably fair. Continue reading
Category Archives: Darkmarkets
Drones Revolutionize Cross Border Drug Shipment
While the Silk Road trial is ongoing, San Diego's NBC news affiliate is reporting on a drone that crashed near the border crossing at San Ysidro while carrying more than 6 pounds of methamphetamine. The crash location itself was a Tijuana grocery store parking lot. This is far from the first report of drug trafficking across the United States – Mexican border using drones, and is largely notable because of the drone's crash. Continue reading
Robert Faiella AKA BTCKing Sentenced To Four Years In Prison
Robert Faiella, better known as BTCKing and Charlie Shrem's partner in crime, was today sentenced to four years in prison for the part he played in selling USD $1 million worth of bitcoin to Silk Road users.
Using Shrem's BitInstant service, Faiella fulfilled orders by Silk Road users who wished to purchase bitcoins so as to then use them to buy their drug of choice via the Silk Road. Pleading guilty, former plumber1 Faiella told the court that his decision to act as a broker to people looking to purchase bitcoin came as a result of having no other way to support his family. Continue reading
Mushrooms anyone? ↩
Prosecutors Seek to Bar DPR Interview From Jury – Updated
In Wired Andy Greenberg writes that the Preet Bharara's team prosecuting the Silk Road case wants to bar the Jury from being exposed to the only interview done with the Dread Pirate Roberts of the Silk Road. The interview done by Andy Greenberg for Forbes is notable for sounding to Department of Homeland Security agents a lot like Mark Karpelès and containing a number of answers from the Dread Pirate Roberts which supports the argument presently being advanced by the defense that in spite of founding the Silk Road and being caught holding the bad for the Silk Road Ulbricht had little to do with the Silk Road for most of its history. Continue reading
Yet Another Silk Road Marketplace Launches
An as yet unknown1 individual or group has taken up the mantle of DPR and launched the next iteration of the Silk Road marketplace, but this time around it's not accessible via Tor. SilkRoadReloaded, which promotes security as being its number one feature, launched a few days ago on the I2P network and is currently being promoted throughout various dark marketplace and other subreddits by someone assumed to be connected to the new service. Continue reading
At least to the public. ↩
Judge Forrest Rules Uncharged "Murder Plot" Can be Presented at Trial
As predicted the prosecution in the Silk Road case will be able to present the uncharged murder for hire plot to impeach Ross Ulbricht's character at trial next week.
Canberra Times: Police Concerned Over Online Drug Purchases
According to the Caberra Times the phenomenon of "tech-savvy young people" buying drugs online is leading to police and "crime experts" expressing concern over the phenomenon. One of the cited "crime experts", Dr Susan Goldsmid of the Australian Institute of Criminology, when asked about the size of online drug markets and the population patronizing them could not offer a response other than saying it was an "unknown" while also offering that it was unlikely in her estimation that users are buying drugs online when they have access to the traditional physical networks typically used for commerce in drugs.
Preet Bharara: Keep Politics Out of Ulbricht Defense
The Daily Dot reports that prosecutors in the Ross Ulbricht case working under Preet Bharara is seeking to bar Ulbricht and his defense team from bringing up the subject of Ulbricht's political beliefs at trial, and wants to prevent Ulbricht from saying anything political at all on the stand. Preet Baharara is himself specifically concerned that the defense wants to bring up: Continue reading
Spanish CyberSquat Raided in 'Counter-Terrorism' Operation
There are report that Kasa de la Muntanya has been raided by Spanish police for its connections to Anarchist activity in an operation that has been described as being "Counter-Terrorism" in nature. At least 11 people have been arrested. Kasa de la Muntanya had in the past been profiled by the BBC as being a 'Cyber Squat' and has been described by Julia Tourianski on Twitter as a place that housed several families. An online profile describes Kasa de la Muntanya as a social center which has been occupied since 1989. Continue reading
Vice Fingers Alleged Silk Road 2.0 Mole Account
Vice Motherboard is alleging that the account used by the FBI inflitrator into the Silk Road 2.0 was named 'Cirrus', and that the user had notably at one point been a staff member of the original Silk Road. This conclusion was reached through a process of elimination. Vice also reports that some people involved in Darknet markets had suspicions about this user for some time.