In this section, we’ll explore the founding and operations of the Silk Road, its product offerings, and the role of cryptocurrency in its transactions. Force got Green to sign a waiver, thereby commencing his role in an impromptu staged torture sting against DPR. Soon Green was being dunked in the bathtub of a Marriott suite by phony thugs who were in fact a Secret Service agent and a Baltimore postal inspector. Green would be the first to admit that he was too chickenshit for suicide.
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There cannot be many international crime leaders inspired by “The Princess Bride”, a cult children’s fantasy movie released in 1987. Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road, the very first dark-web drug-trading network, certainly was. When users signed up for the website, which went live in 2011, they were greeted by a message from the founder, “Dread Pirate Roberts”, the hero of the film, explaining how the site worked.
The persistence of demand for such services underscores the ongoing challenges in combating online drug trafficking. Proponents of Silk Road argue that it provided a safer alternative to street-level drug transactions, raising questions about the effectiveness of current drug policies. Despite its innovative approach, Silk Road faced numerous challenges. The site was frequently targeted by Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, which aimed to overwhelm its servers and disrupt operations. These attacks highlighted the inherent vulnerabilities of operating an illegal marketplace online.
Early Life
Richard Bates was Ulbricht’s head programmer, and Roger Thomas Clark, aka “Mongoose” or “Variety Jones,” acted as Ulbricht’s mentor. To escape prosecution, Bates testified against Ulbricht in 2015, while Clark was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2023. By leveraging the anonymous Tor web browser and untraceable cryptocurrency, he soon realized his vision for a decentralized marketplace. All trades on Silk Road were conducted using the virtual currency bitcoin.
Why Was The Silk Road Illegal If The Dark Web Wasn’t?
In order to be eligible, applicants must have a bachelor’s degree and four years of experience in digital forensics or cybersecurity. Ulbricht’s name came up early in the investigation in 2011, when an IRS agent began an extensive search of the internet for early mentions of the Silk Road, hoping to trace back to its origins. After an enormous amount of sifting, they discovered that only four days after the first Silk Road blog went up, a user named Altoid posted about it in a small-time discussion forum. Following the trail of that online handle, investigators found him looking to recruit an IT and Bitcoin specialist, and referring people to a Gmail address that included the name Ross Ulbricht.
Access The Dark Web Safely
Silk Road did not accept cash or credit cards; users had to pay with bitcoin, a cryptocurrency. Ross Ulbricht, the infamous ‘Dread Pirate Roberts’, creates the Silk Road marketplace to sell drugs on the dark web. After two days of intermittent service, Silk Road’s administrators told users on Wednesday morning the site was back in action – but said they could not rule out further downtime. Silk Road is only accessible through Tor, a service which allows users to browse anonymously online.
Silk Road quickly became synonymous with the dark side of the internet, attracting significant media attention and raising concerns about the ethical implications of unregulated online marketplaces. Ulbricht created Silk Road out of a desire to have an open marketplace where people could buy and trade anything they wanted, without government regulation. To maintain users’ and his own anonymity, Ulbricht set up Silk Road on the dark web, a part of the internet invisible to traditional search engines.
They said he solicited six murders-for-hire – including one against a former employee – although there was no evidence any of these actually took place and Ulbricht was never tried for them. Silk Road took its name from a network of historic trading routes that were active in the second century. Blockchain forensics is the art and science of tracking complex blockchain transactions, particularly those involving cryptocurrency.
- Some imitate Silk Road (there was even a “new” Silk Road market operating for a while), while others find ways to innovate.
- Tor’s encryption is so layered, agents thought it was unbreakable.
- US prosecutors alleged that the site had been used to facilitate more than 1.5 million transactions worth approximately $213m, including more than $183m in drug sales.
- This makes it extremely hard for anyone to identify the source of the information or the user’s location.
Silk Road’s Operations
But other times DPR was full of generosity, staking Green in a poker tournament (and being unfazed when Green lost it all). Like a digital-era don, he could be affectionate and magnanimous in public but decidedly less humane behind the scenes. He gave audience to loyal users seeking favors—one guy got help buying a wedding ring—but was decidedly unsympathetic to the real consequences of his business. When Green’s diligent forum-moderating turned into a job offer from DPR, he was thrilled. DPR sent a job description, which included customer service and resetting passwords. Green (taking on a new admin handle, Flush) worked 80 hours a week, mediating drug sale disputes from his lounger, Fox News running in the background.
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It also shone a light on the importance for law enforcement to develop new tools and strategies to combat online crime. During the trial, prosecutors presented digital evidence that tied Ulbricht to Silk Road, including chat logs, server data, and journal entries. They also presented evidence of Ulbricht’s attempts to hire hitmen to kill individuals he believed were threatening Silk Road’s operations. Ulbricht’s decision to use the Tor network to hide Silk Road’s location also proved to be a mistake. While Tor provided anonymity, it also attracted the attention of law enforcement agencies, who viewed it as a haven for criminal activity. In addition, Ross also used his personal laptop to run the site, which made it easier for authorities to track him down.
Soon the two become inseparable, and when he jokingly suggests launching a website from which dealers can easily sell drugs, both Julia and Ulbricht’s best friend Max (Daniel David Stewart) are happy to go along with his wild scheme. “We saw murder-for-hire postings, hacking-for-hire postings, which was, ‘hey, pay me two bitcoin and I’ll hack into your ex-wife or ex-husband’s email account,'” Patel said. “…It was totally anonymous. And you could never trace it back to the person who asked for it.” Trump moved swiftly to issue pardons following his second presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, including to 1,500 of his supporters (archived) who attacked the U.S. On Jan. 22, 2025, Trump announced Ulbricht’s pardon on Truth Social, calling (archived) his prison sentence “ridiculous.” Federal documentation confirmed the grant of clemency (archived).
In the years that followed, several new dark web markets emerged to fill the void left by the Silk Road. Some of these successors, such as AlphaBay and Hansa, grew even larger than the Silk Road at its peak. However, many of these newer markets have also faced their own takedowns and legal challenges, proving that the battle between law enforcement and dark web operators is far from over. Ross Ulbricht was charged with multiple offences, including conspiracy to traffic narcotics, computer hacking, money laundering, and engaging in a criminal enterprise.
Ross and René thought the world should know more about them, so they entered the StoryCorps booth, closed the door, and spent half an hour with each other and the camera. But otherwise, Force’s mysterious new pen pal was appropriately cagey. For some reason, Force always imagined DPR as a skinny white kid, probably on the West Coast based on his active hours. He thought about DPR, living a double life, and the allure—and danger—of taking on a new identity. Tarbell and his fellow cybercops occupied a couple of dozen spots toward the back of the bullpen, fanned out around a core group of desks called the Pit. This was prime real estate, where the cool kids among the FBI’s computer clique sat.
The government has never explained how it located those servers, at least to the satisfaction of tech experts. Once inside the site, government agents created fake personas to interact with the site’s administrator. He argued in his sentencing statement that the site helped reduce violence in the drug trade, and that the Silk Road’s ratings and reviews prevented the sale of adulterated drugs that would have caused greater harm. The Silk Road quickly gained notoriety for facilitating drug trafficking and other illicit activities. The marketplace generated millions of dollars in sales and more than $13 million dollars’ worth of Bitcoin in commissions, according to a press release from the FBI.
