# Silk Road raided by the FBI



## Aldryic C'boas (Oct 2, 2013)

http://www.reddit.com/r/SilkRoad/comments/1nl7p9/sr_shutdown_fallout_discussion/

And now I have this overwhelming urge to listen to Bobby Fuller.


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## Francisco (Oct 2, 2013)

A touchy subject but a very interesting one.

It seems that Silk Road, the 'anonymous market' that sold anything from drugs to hits on people has been raided by the feds.

For a full breakdown of what happened have a read over here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/SilkRoad/comments/1nl7p9/sr_shutdown_fallout_discussion/ccjlwgp

It looks like BTC's took a ~15% hit from this but has been recovering some ($140 -> < $113 -> $125)

Francisco


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## nunim (Oct 2, 2013)

BTC sure has some wild fluctuations, it's a shame SR is gone but I guess it was only a matter of time.  The article is interesting, paying someone to kill someone via BTC?  That's got to be a new one even for the FBI. Although this guy wasn't perfect about covering his tracks it still shows if they want you they're going to get you no matter how hard you try. I feel like a lot of these charges would be hard to prove without hard physical evidence but I'm sure he's going to jail for awhile.

So now the well educated, well funded junkies will have to go back to the streets in order to cop, the government managed to put the violence and crime back into illegal drugs, a great victory  Moral of the story is that if you want drugs buy them on the streets with cash.

He must have made quite a bit of money if he was willing to pay $150k for a hit on someone.  That's the problem with internet hitmen, it never works out... Stick to your local mafioso if you want the job done right!

They didn't really say how they were able to access the server and I don't really understand how the guy who was trying to blackmail him got his information either..


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## Reece-DM (Oct 2, 2013)

What a marvellous week first Santrex now Silkroad.

I wonder what's next for the darker side.


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## raindog308 (Oct 2, 2013)

Aldryic C said:


> And now I have this overwhelming urge to listen to Bobby Fuller.


Nice.  The guitar in that song *is* really hot.

It's really hard to keep things secret when you have a large number of people involved, not all of whom are security-conscious.  And when your adversary has virtually unlimited resources and is highly motivated.

As is so often the case...it's not the technology but rather the human link.  The government said he "made a simple mistake" and there is some talk about fake IDs because caught at the border, etc.


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## RiotSecurity (Oct 2, 2013)

Well, saw that coming.


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## MannDude (Oct 2, 2013)

I've got a buddy who would not listen to my advice.

Do not buy from the SilkRoad, I said. It's not going to be good, I said.

That was a month or so ago. I'll be sure to forward him this.


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## nunim (Oct 2, 2013)

MannDude said:


> I've got a buddy who would not listen to my advice.
> 
> Do not buy from the SilkRoad, I said. It's not going to be good, I said.
> 
> That was a month or so ago. I'll be sure to forward him this.


I would only be worried if I were a large supplier on SR, if I was just a small time buyer I wouldn't be too worried, especially if PGP was used properly.  They aren't going to track down every user and if they did the drugs would have been consumed by now.


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## MannDude (Oct 2, 2013)

Merged the two topics.


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## blergh (Oct 2, 2013)

What about that other place that allows guns & shit? Supposedly more safe than SR


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## MannDude (Oct 2, 2013)

blergh said:


> What about that other place that allows guns & shit? Supposedly more safe than SR


BMR?

Maybe. Not something I'd want to try out though.


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## nunim (Oct 2, 2013)

Shipping guns through the mail is a bit more complicated then small amounts of drugs... I wouldn't want to sign for that package   These days all you need is a 3d printer and you can make your own, that worries me more then anything you can buy online as it'd be possible to create a gun containing virtually no metal.  While you still would need to smuggle the bullet(s) somehow, I know it would be possible since they're quite small.


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## MannDude (Oct 2, 2013)

nunim said:


> Shipping guns through the mail is a bit more complicated then small amounts of drugs... I wouldn't want to sign for that package   These days all you need is a 3d printer and you can make your own, that worries me more then anything you can buy online as it'd be possible to create a gun containing virtually no metal.  While you still would need to smuggle the bullet(s) somehow, I know it would be possible since they're quite small.


Need not be worried about 3D printed guns. They're more or less good for singleuse only. Things get too hot for the plastic to be good. You can make a homemade gun much faster, and one much more effective with a longer lifespan by going to Lowes or HomeDepot and getting supplies. Or you can, y'know, just buy a real gun. Even a cheap ass HiPoint 9mm is like $200 brand new. Jeminez and SCCY make cheap ass pistols too. Nothing I'd want to protect my life with, but chances are good they'll go 'bang' when the trigger is pulled. Though quality is better than anything home made, still a higher chance of jams and other feed related failures.


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## drmike (Oct 2, 2013)

Wait...

9,519,664 BTC spent? 

What is the value of one BTC?  Is that they current market of say $140 per coin? Or are these smaller increments?


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## drmike (Oct 2, 2013)

> HiPoint 9mm is like $200


Try probably around $150, new.

They aren't horrible guns.  Can't beat them on price.   If you are Ohio resident they are in state firearm made and shouldn't be ATF subject since transaction within the State.   Montana was going to take the feds to court over such.  Unsure where the murk is currently.


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## MannDude (Oct 2, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> Wait...
> 
> 9,519,664 BTC spent?
> 
> What is the value of one BTC?  Is that they current market of say $140 per coin? Or are these smaller increments?


That would be the same as $981,500,000, give or take. That's at BTC's current value.



buffalooed said:


> Try probably around $150, new.
> 
> They aren't horrible guns.  Can't beat them on price.   If you are Ohio resident they are in state firearm made and shouldn't be ATF subject since transaction within the State.   Montana was going to take the feds to court over such.  Unsure where the murk is currently.


Yeah, they're made in America. Have a great lifetime warranty and I've heard great things about their replacement policy, etc. But they're still big, bulky, ugly, and not as reliable as a higher priced firearm. Although would still be 100X better than anything home made.


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## drmike (Oct 2, 2013)

The fellow that was busted in this fed sting supposedly had control of $80 million in BitCoins.... Geez.

Wait until you see what an example they make out of him, if he doesn't have some bigger fish to rat on.

Seriously, 25-life is what he is facing.


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## MannDude (Oct 2, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> The fellow that was busted in this fed sting supposedly had control of $80 million in BitCoins.... Geez.
> 
> Wait until you see what an example they make out of him, if he doesn't have some bigger fish to rat on.
> 
> Seriously, 25-life is what he is facing.


What I find interesting is he lived a modest lifestyle. Shared an apartment, paid $1,000/mo or so for rent. Didn't live like a millionaire.

Personally, after the initial questioning about the fake IDs I would have gotten out of dodge. Catch a ride to Mexico, board a flight to anywhere else.


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## drmike (Oct 2, 2013)

Seemed like a bright fellow with a college education.  The lure of easy money is a road paved to hell.


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## kro (Oct 2, 2013)

Another one bites the dust.

Wonder what will spring up in its place, or who is second in line to take all the users.


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## kro (Oct 2, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> Seemed like a bright fellow with a college education.  The lure of easy money is a road paved to hell.


I BET IT WAS FUN THOUGH!!!!!!


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## texteditor (Oct 2, 2013)

MannDude said:


> What I find interesting is he lived a modest lifestyle. Shared an apartment, paid $1,000/mo or so for rent. Didn't live like a millionaire.


That's because his millions of "dollars" were completely theoretical until he could cash them out, which hadn't been possible to do with bitcoins en masse for some time

Also the dude was an idiot, which is also a viable explanation



> iii. The agents showed ULBRICHT a photo of one of the seized counterfeit identity documents, which was a California driver's license bearing ULBRICHT's photo and true date of birth, but bearing a name other than his. ULBRICHT generally refused to answer any questions pertaining to the purchase of this or other counterfeit identity documents. *However, ULBRICHT volunteered that "hypothetically" anyone could go onto a website named "Silk Road" on "Tor" and purchase any drugs or fake identity documents the person wanted.*


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## texteditor (Oct 2, 2013)

lol, Slate has more info on the alleged $80k "clean hit" referred to in the court documents:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2013/10/02/ross_william_ulbricht_maryland_indictment_the_alleged_silk_road_mastermind.html



> A new charge against Ulbricht now provides details of that “clean hit,” which, as it turns out, was neither clean nor a hit. An indictment from the U.S. District Court in Maryland alleges that, in January 2013, Ulbricht attempted to arrange the murder of a former employee who had recently been arrested by the feds. Unfortunately for him, the “assassin” he tried to hire was an undercover federal agent.
> 
> According to the indictment, Ulbricht sent the agent $40,000 up front; once the hit was “confirmed” by means of an elaborately staged photograph,Ulbricht sent him another $40,000.


holy shit


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## RiotSecurity (Oct 2, 2013)

texteditor said:


> lol, Slate has more info on the alleged $80k "clean hit" referred to in the court documents:
> 
> http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2013/10/02/ross_william_ulbricht_maryland_indictment_the_alleged_silk_road_mastermind.html
> 
> holy shit


I wish I had this kids money.


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## raindog308 (Oct 2, 2013)

He seems to have been rather stupid...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24371894

I've never run a major global criminal ring on the Internet, but if I did...I could not be careful enough.  Certainly a lot more careful than this guy.


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## Kakashi (Oct 2, 2013)

Yeah he gave the game away. Then again if drugs were legalised then this guy would be nothing more than an entrepreneur.


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## texteditor (Oct 2, 2013)

Q: What kind of cryptocurrency 'drug kingpin' wires money to a 'hitman'?

A: A really dumb one:



> The agent led Ulbricht to believe that the killing had been carried out, including sending staged photos of the employee being tortured, authorities say. On March 1, they say, Ulbricht wired $80,000 from an account in Australia to an account controlled by authorities.


http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bs-md-silk-road-shut-down-20131002,0,7548092.story


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## kaniini (Oct 2, 2013)

The more hilarious part of this story was that one of the "employees" of Silk Road was an undercover agent too.  Since _October 2011_.

I guess they were concentrating on tracing the big players on the market for the past year, and then with the government shutdown underway, went in for the kill.


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## WelltodoInformalCattle (Oct 2, 2013)

I see no downside in this guy's misfortune. Anyone think otherwise?


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## drmike (Oct 2, 2013)

I think this guy earned his ass kicking.   I don't support dope dealing, even when pharma companies and so called doctors do it "legally".

There is untold hell all over the place from the SilkRoad deals - especially the drug ones.  Not everyone is a civilized recreational user spending spare income for fun.

The hit part, grrr...  Feds and sting involvement made this lucky or we'd have a deceased person potentially.

Question is if SilkRoad wasn't a honeypot/lure since day one.


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## texteditor (Oct 2, 2013)

Voss said:


> I see no downside in this guy's misfortune. Anyone think otherwise?



Aside from Google+ losing one of the last 50 or so people using it, nope.


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## texteditor (Oct 2, 2013)

I do think it would have been cooler if the Feds kept the fact that the first hit was 'staged' up until the ex-employee/target of the hit could show up to witness at the trial.


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## drmike (Oct 2, 2013)

^--- that would be honestly, the funniest trial in history.


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## joepie91 (Oct 3, 2013)

Quick analysis of the consequences of this bust that I wrote earlier today: http://joepie91.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/a-realistic-analysis-of-the-fallout-of-the-silk-road-bust/


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## texteditor (Oct 3, 2013)

Painting this as just another battle in the War on Drugs kinda glosses over the whole 'tried to hire multiple hitmen for multiple hits' thing.


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## joepie91 (Oct 3, 2013)

texteditor said:


> Painting this as just another battle in the War on Drugs kinda glosses over the whole 'tried to hire multiple hitmen for multiple hits' thing.


There's simply not enough information available about the hitmen thing, as of yet, to say anything useful about it. Not to mention that it's completely irrelevant to the rest of the article.


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## Reece-DM (Oct 3, 2013)

texteditor said:


> lol, Slate has more info on the alleged $80k "clean hit" referred to in the court documents:
> 
> http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2013/10/02/ross_william_ulbricht_maryland_indictment_the_alleged_silk_road_mastermind.html
> 
> holy shit


That just proves theres a 99.9999% chance they could of taken SilkRoad down years ago. Let's be fair they like to keep these "Dark" sites online to lure in more and more people. Not even taking into consideration the it could of been the feds who made SilkRoad..Let's be honest who really knows? Remember Tor was developed for the Navy..


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## Cloudrck (Oct 3, 2013)

Anyone read this page 24

http://www1.icsi.berkeley.edu/%7Enweaver/UlbrichtCriminalComplaint.pdf

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=47811.msg568744#msg568744

Seems like he wasn't as smart as he thought. Made novice mistakes.

How long until someone takes his place? Drug dealers/conspirators are like roaches, kill one and there are 10 more waiting in the wall.


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## WelltodoInformalCattle (Oct 3, 2013)

joepie91 said:


> There's simply not enough information available about the hitmen thing, as of yet, to say anything useful about it. Not to mention that it's completely irrelevant to the rest of the article.


Should've left out the 'Availibility of Drugs' bit out altogether or at least revised it.



> This is a commonly mentioned one. Indeed there will likely be a temporary rise in the amount of street-dealing (and the associated violence and trouble) while Silk Road is gone.


That's a groundless assumption based on your personal opinion


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## texteditor (Oct 3, 2013)

Little known fact that there was no drug trade before Silk Road existed


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## hzr (Oct 3, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> I think this guy earned his ass kicking.   I don't support dope dealing, even when pharma companies and so called doctors do it "legally".
> 
> There is untold hell all over the place from the SilkRoad deals - especially the drug ones.  Not everyone is a civilized recreational user spending spare income for fun.
> 
> ...


There probably is going to be multiple deceased people. Imagine small time dealers that collect money from others, deposit it into their SR wallet, and now have neither drugs nor money. And angry addicts.


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## ServerBros (Oct 6, 2013)

Was a long time coming really, the feds went all too quiet for a while and now we know why. The owner sounds a complete novice compared to the size of the site and supposed security it offered.

I mean if you were wanting to remain on the ball, in no way would you post things with your own email, and name.


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