FBI raids alleged online drug market Silk Road, arrests owner

All you people speculating over this guy not being the real DPR and the site maybe not really being over are really getting my hopes up. Sad news in the meantime. Fingers crossed.
 
Come to think of it the first thing they usually do in drug cases is release photographs in the media and be like "look at this monster thank god the FBI got him" so maybe there is hope or maybe he wasn't taken in "without incident".

I guess it will confirm it when we see him in cuffs, all this is just speculation.
 
Atlantis closed it doors a week or so ago, ripping some people off in the process apparently. Just google it if you wont more info. I think they said in a news release they did it was over 'security concerns' or something.

There are apparently still alternatives, if you read http://www.reddit.com/r/SilkRoad/ you can find out more on the two I think that are still going.
 
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Mandark said:
Whaaat? I was sad about SR, but I thought "well, at least there are alternatives; I'll try Atlantis later, see how this works". And now I read this!
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Yeah.. suspicious dont you think? They tried to attract all the silk road sellers there when silk road was down for a week, they few days before they just shut down? Hmm, either they were connected.. or it was an police operation to start with.. who knows.. none of us lol

I think this is the best explanation ive read so far, FBI staging murders etc,, sound about right and sneaky..

NSFW:
The facts come straight from the criminal complaint. The speculation is italicised. It is pure speculation at this point, I make no bones about that. But read it anyway.

The Agent Provocateur.

I have a background which has allowed me to learn, in vivid detail, some of the extraordinarily underhanded tactics law enforcement agencies will use to secure the evidence they need, in investigations of varying different crimes - be it espionage, fraud, drug dealing or murder. What we are looking at with DPR, I believe, is the same story. DPR made some mistakes, but they were not enough, on their own, to yield much in the way of definitive evidence. It was all, at best, circumstantial.

Not all countries cooperate with foreign legal process requests. One way to get most countries interested is murder. SR was in the drug business, not murder. So, how do you get cooperation?

A whole section in the complaint is entitled "DPR's Willingness to Use Violence to Protect His Interests in Silk Road". Without question a large chunk of the FBI's investigation revolves around this aspect. One might even contend that until this aspect of the investigation was underway, this was all a DEA matter. There was no definitive proof of money laundering, or for that matter, anything else, until later - specifically, when the server image was acquired.

The nail in the coffin comes owing to what I believe is a targeted, deliberate, unacknowledged element to their investigation, which all, apparently, originates in Canada - 'redandwhite', an agent provocateur who, through the use of a staged murder, allows the FBI to ratchet their investigation up a notch.

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Pages 23 and 24 of the criminal complaint outline correspondence regarding a member of SR attempting to blackmail DPR. The flow of the story is like this -

1) User FriendlyChemist, apparently a Candian (as at page 24 of the complaint - keep Canada in mind), contacts DPR claiming to have hacked a vendor on SR. He proivides names and addresses of clients and the vendor's password. He then demands that DPR pays 500k.
Things to keep in mind - DPR provides, to his mind, and to the media's mind, the number one market place for drug dealers, world wide.

2) This is, apparently, because he owes other drug dealers. DPR requests that the dealers in question contact DPR directly.

The material suggests that one seller's vendor account was compromised... what if the FBI or another agency had busted another SR seller who agreed to cooperate, or jacked the account's details through use of one of their nefarious other tools?

In terms of getting DPR to come to the table - to me, this looks an awful lot like DPR thinking he can make a better deal - because if you're a law enforcement agency looking to entice a drug traffick facilitator to engage you in dialogue, what better prospective businessman to speak to than someone who handles volumes of 500k? And if you're looking to entice such a person in to discussion, you've set the PERFECT bait

3) User redandwhite [NB. Mob Piru/blood colors) contacts DPR to discuss the issue with FriendChemist.

4) Rather than paying 500k to cover the money FriendlyChemist owes and after attempting to get redandwhite on board on SR (which apparently does not happen, and if it does, is not mentioned in the criminal complaint), eventually, after being threatened again, DPR offers a bounty for redandwhite to kill FriendlyChemist.

5) NOTE - redandwhite asks specifically what the problem with him is, to which DPR responds with a long spiel about how "anonymity is sacrosanct". Large portions of the criminal complaint discuss how DPR is a 'law unto himself' etc etc.

6) DPR and redandwhite settle on 150k, which is paid via BTC. redandwhite sends supposed DPR proof images of having killed FriendlyChemist.

If you're a Breaking Bad fan, you're probably aware this isn't too hard to pull off. If that's a spoiler for you at this point, your inability to use torrents as a member of this community is nearly unfathomable

Please keep in mind - payment, according to the complaint, was not remitted until AFTER the proof image was supplied. If you've just gotten away with 150k in BTC, clear, would YOU be sending a faked up proof image? No, of course not. But if it DIDN'T happen, and your objective was building an ongoing working relationship and rapport with DPR, this would be a good way of pulling it off.

7) The affidavit indicates that police in Canada cannot find a matching homicide, and names White Rock as being the location.

Probably because it didn't happen, and that needs to be in the affidavit. That all seems well and good - DPR got ripped off, right? This is where the plot thickens. I don't know about you, but if I dropped 150k on something like that, I'd want some objective proof that it'd been done.

8) On June 1, 2013, DPR contacts redandwhite to assist with his fake id problems because he is looking to build a server storage location. Keep in mind, redandwhite is a supposedly Canada based criminal. (page 30)

Despite, apparently, having access to the whole SR system, the criminal complaint never touches on WHERE DPR sources his IDs.

I believe DPR obtained his fake IDs from redandwhite - an agent provocateur from the get go. And they never reach him. Why? Because CBP knows there's a parcel coming.

9) On July 10, 2013, there is a seizure by CBP of fake ID from Canada(page 28).

What we see here is the missing link from an evidentiary perspective. It definitively ties Ulbricht via his photo on the IDs, presumably acquired from redandwhite, to the DPR identity, and murder for hire. Naturally, there is no specific mention of where DPR got his fake IDs - its been purposefully omitted. And now, anyone who was holding out on cooperation has murder for hire in the affidavit in front of them.

10) On July 23, the Mutual Assistance request from a foreign jurisdiction yields images of the SR server.
A document which has not, and probably won't, see the light of day, presumably outlines the specifics of the user known as DPR paying or otherwise acquiring from redandwhite, a collection of fake IDs - how he had hired redandwhite to murder someone, and believed it had happened - and how this man, pictured, had paid, and given this address, operates this website, the one to which the FBI was requesting access
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Does anyone think it had to do with the US "government shutdown"? If the government really was running it...
 
As would be expected, Dread Pirate Roberts was using a VPN - virtual private network - to generate a "false" IP address, designed to cover his tracks.

Mr Ulbricht said to have been running Silk Road from Hickory Street in San Francisco

However, the provider of the VPN was subpoenaed by the FBI.

While efforts had been made by DPR to delete data, the VPN server's records showed a user logged in from an internet cafe just 500 yards from an address on Hickory Street, known to be the home close friend of Mr Ulbricht's, and a location that had also been used to log into the Gmail account.

At this point in the investigation, these clues, investigators concluded, were enough to suggest that Mr Ulbricht and DPR - if not the same person - were at the very least in the same location at the same time.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24371894
 
Dresden said:
Busting Silk Road is a big win in the War on Drugs for the government's side.
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this is a victory over a nagging thorn in their side whose success made them look a little helpless.. but I would hardly think that putting all that business back to the god damn violent street dealing and sub par brain frying chinese research chemicals would be considered a victory.. oh wait this is the drug war we are talking and it hasn't been based in realty forever.
 
Damn, I've looked into the SR a few times, had a login and never used it. Today I was going to check in on it and browse a bit and I stumble upon this while waiting for a Tor update. Too bad, and to say its a win for the war on drugs is just what the DEA and FBI want the public to believe. They can spin it how they want, but it isn't any better or worse than before SR existed. I don't think there is anyway it doesn't increase the rates of drug related violence and people will get what they want, or something to replace it that is probably worse for them.
 
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