FBI raids alleged online drug market Silk Road, arrests owner

Ismene said:
Sure, but you wonder who made the first move. Would the UK really have demanded they hand the addresses over? Maybe - UK pigs are as bad as US pigs. But the americans do tend to lead the world in draconian measures on drugs so I tend to think the US said "Here, take appropriate action and impress your american masters with your zeal".
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Get arrested for possession of drugs in any country outside of the "West" and get back to me. US drug laws are fucked, but they are nowhere near the harshest or most draconian.

my3rdeye said:
The next DPR should set up in Iran or some other hostile nation anyway, insanity to do it in USA.
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They execute people for drug possession in Iran and other things (like being gay). Yes, setting up in the US was dumb, but Iran would be dumber.
 
I just had a quick look at San Fran police news releases and also Baltimore's, as I think I have heard the two areas come up in this case and couldn't find a thing on 'Ross William Ulbricht' or 'Silk Road'. I looked and did searches with their search boxes.

If something like this happened here in Aus, the police websites would be updated close to instantly and also the AFP (Australian Federal Police) and or customs sites would be too. And it would be on the nightly news every night for a while.

So far all the media (news outlets) seem to be regurgitating the same kind of stories. But I guess there have been reports of court appearances and such involving Ross, hasn't anyone seen anything on their local TV news with reporters outside the courthouse or anything? The other thing is that large pdf charge sheet document would be hard to emulate and hugely time consuming to make up and make to look real. So i'm guessing the whole thing is real based on that report.

It's pretty unlikely the whole thing is a hoax or a hack or anything I can't imagine why anyone would goto all the trouble, surely more info must be forthcoming soon on the whole saga.
 
poledriver said:
I just had a quick look at San Fran police news releases and also Baltimore's, as I think I have heard the two areas come up in this case and couldn't find a thing on 'Ross William Ulbricht' or 'Silk Road'. I looked and did searches with their search boxes.

If something like this happened here in Aus, the police websites would be updated close to instantly and also the AFP (Australian Federal Police) and or customs sites would be too. And it would be on the nightly news every night for a while.

So far all the media (news outlets) seem to be regurgitating the same kind of stories. But I guess there have been reports of court appearances and such involving Ross, hasn't anyone seen anything on their local TV news with reporters outside the courthouse or anything? The other thing is that large pdf charge sheet document would be hard to emulate and hugely time consuming to make up and make to look real. So i'm guessing the whole thing is real based on that report.

It's pretty unlikely the whole thing is a hoax or a hack or anything I can't imagine why anyone would goto all the trouble, surely more info must be forthcoming soon on the whole saga.
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There have been some court docs released, it has had a few mentions. It might not just be considered that big of a story, especially with the current government shutdown.

And yes, this is very likely "real". Are some suggesting that it isn't?
 
There have been some court docs released, it has had a few mentions. It might not just be considered that big of a story, especially with the current government shutdown.

And yes, this is very likely "real". Are some suggesting that it isn't?
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No idea, just seems odd that it's not in the police news or dea or cia news etc. Maybe it is and I couldnt find it, or maybe as you said it's because of the shutdowns.

Seems like it would be considered a pretty big story to me. All the news papers over here ran it and some still are.

I had meant to quote numbers quote with my post # 304

The mere appearance of a story on the news doesn't certify its veracity. You have to verify the sources. Conveniently, you cannot verify the sources at this time because the US government is shut down. The FBI and friends are not posting news releases on their websites.

So then, does anyone know whether or not any arm of law enforcement is verifying this?
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Silk Road accused Ross Ulbricht appears in court

The alleged mastermind behind the online illegal drugs marketplace Silk Road is too dangerous to be bailed, US prosecutors have said.

Ross Ulbricht, 29, was arrested this week and is charged with being the administrator of the site which has now been shut down.

He is also accused of trying to arrange the killing of one of the site's users.

"We deny all charges and that is the end of the discussion at this point," Mr Ulbricht's lawyer said.

Mr Ulbricht appeared in a San Francisco court on Friday wearing a green T-shirt under red jail clothes and had his ankles shackled.

A request from his legal team for his bail hearing to be pushed back was granted - it will now take place on 9 October.

Flee concern
Federal magistrate Joseph Spero asked Mr Ulbricht's lawyer Brandon LeBlanc whether seeing the criminal indictment that included a murder-for-hire charge had "changed his calculus" on whether he thought Mr Ulbricht would be granted bail.

As part of its criminal complaint, the FBI alleged that Mr Ulbricht had sought to pay a Silk Road user to kill another user who had threatened to expose details of the site's users.

Prosecutors opposed the delay, arguing that Mr Ulbricht represented a danger to the community, and that there was a high likelihood that he may attempt to flee.

The Silk Road was a well-known destination on Tor, a so-called "dark web" service that anonymises users, making it much more difficult for authorities to track locations.

The site sold a range of items, but was most famous for offering a host of illegal drugs, paid for using virtual currency Bitcoin.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24399217
 
phactor said:
They execute people for drug possession in Iran and other things (like being gay). Yes, setting up in the US was dumb, but Iran would be dumber.
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I think the point was that the US is possibly the worst place to base such a site due to the huge police/prison/surveillance apparatus and their ability to force the hand of partner nations.

You yanks think that think you have freedom and place yourselves on pedestals above countries like Iran are kidding yourselves, the fact is you have the worlds highest prison population and the highest % of population incarcerated. statistically the country where you are most likely to get imprisoned for drug use is the US.

Sure in Iran you can't be openly gay or get a rooster haircut, but virtually every pharma you can imagine is easily obtained, heroin and meth are dirt dirt cheap. Users are actually very rarely arrested as opposed to the US. dealers however are treated severely. I'm a drug addict not a gay hairstylist so I may be biased in my appraisal.

Thanks to crippling US economic sanctions poverty,unemployment and drug use are skyrocketing,
 
The FBI where on to him before he even started the site, when he asked for help setting it up he used his email address with his name and address attached to it. I'm surprised this lasted as long as it did.
 
my3rdeye said:
If you use a laptop you only have for business and free wi fi hotspots (more than 1 like DPR) the chance of getting busted is small
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Don't kid yourself. If they have reason and motivation to get you, they will, and leaving a trail of your activities via the use of technology just makes it that much easier. The US surveillance state approximates a true global adversary, its almost laughable to think of conducting illegal business on their network at any type of meaningful scale and expecting to get away with it. The amount of data and the sophistication of the analytics technology available to US federal law enforcement is unfathomable. You cannot protect yourself from an adversary with a global view of the network and vast computing resources. All you can do is hope you're low key enough to not be worth the time and effort to pursue; and security by obscurity is hardly security at all.

If you're going to be a criminal, which I don't recommend in any case, you should understand this and basically stop using any type of networked technology altogether. Like I said before, pretend its 1975. Hell, pretend its 1875. Don't use phones, internet, or anything like that. Face to face meets only in places that are physically isolated from the network infrastructure.

Just throwing my advice out into the collective consciousness, for whatever its worth... don't entrust your freedom to a bunch of spooks on the internet.
 
oldirtybizza said:
I think the point was that the US is possibly the worst place to base such a site due to the huge police/prison/surveillance apparatus and their ability to force the hand of partner nations.

You yanks think that think you have freedom and place yourselves on pedestals above countries like Iran are kidding yourselves, the fact is you have the worlds highest prison population and the highest % of population incarcerated. statistically the country where you are most likely to get imprisoned for drug use is the US.

Sure in Iran you can't be openly gay or get a rooster haircut, but virtually every pharma you can imagine is easily obtained, heroin and meth are dirt dirt cheap. Users are actually very rarely arrested as opposed to the US. dealers however are treated severely. I'm a drug addict not a gay hairstylist so I may be biased in my appraisal.

Thanks to crippling US economic sanctions poverty,unemployment and drug use are skyrocketing,
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First of all, I understand that originally point and agreed to it to a point. However, hosting a SR site in Iran would be more idiotic then doing it in the US.

Second of all, I am far from an American exceptionalist and disagree with quite a bit of our foreign policy. I think our judicial and penal system is all sorts of fucked up and disagree with many current laws. Finally, I did not vote for Regan, was opposed to the Iraq war, keep up on world events etc etc. I do believe that I would prefer to live in the United States over Iran though. BTW, I also lived in Europe for awhile. Obviously you calling me a "yank" gives away your location. Iranians arrested with drugs are killed, as are individuals who commit things like adultery. They have a fucking "morality police". You are delusional if you think Iran is a preferable society to the US.

I will say though, that by and large, Iranians are much more moderate then the government that controls them.

Thanks for the blanket assumption though. I bet you also think I am bad at geography though.

As for the "US Surveillance state" yes it exists, but it also works closely with many EU countries.

Whatever though. Obviously not worth continuing this conversation.
 
Roger&Me said:
If you're going to be a criminal, which I don't recommend in any case, you should understand this and basically stop using any type of networked technology altogether. Like I said before, pretend its 1975. Hell, pretend its 1875. Don't use phones, internet, or anything like that. Face to face meets only in places that are physically isolated from the network infrastructure.

Just throwing my advice out into the collective consciousness, for whatever its worth... don't entrust your freedom to a bunch of spooks on the internet.
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Ha, and you think you can't get caught that way? If you were to sell drugs on the Internet, there is some slim chance of being caught through surveillance technology, sure. But dealing with other human beings face-to-face is a lot more dangerous! Rats, undercovers, loudmouths...
 
phactor said:
You are delusional if you think Iran is a preferable society to the US.
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I must be delusional for not conforming to your societal ideals, sorry what I meant to say was "you're number 1 , you're number 1" now I'll have an extra large soda, a groovy haircut, a rainbow flag , a double bacon cheeseburger, a beer with a bourbon chaser and wouldya mind putting on jersey shore. ahhhh now that's preferable to everyone.
 
Obviously you calling me a "yank" gives away your location.
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Is there only 1 place in the world that calls Americans Yanks? Where do you think he resides? I'm pretty sure I know the answer but was just wondering.

I thought yank was a pretty well known kind of thing, yankies and seppos etc...
 
Now that DPR's caught , the new witchunt begins. someone who wrote inflammatory comments on a forum.
I mean everyone thought DPR was sippin drinks in Guatemala, I'm actually a self loather and typing this from a starbucks in Berkley.

No diss really theres a lot of good peeps over there, I'm just sick of the WOD and sick of US interference where I live.
 
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What Was Silk Road? A eulogy for an online drug revolution

Prior to its seizure by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the early hours of Wednesday, October 3, Australian time, a website named Silk Road was the holy grail for illicit drug users of all stripes. Since mid-2011, dealers and consumers had been drawn to the site like iron filings to a magnet. Their reasons for downloading a Tor browser and copy-pasting the complex URL that housed Silk Road (SR) can be reduced to two key motivating factors: cash and product.

For drug dealers – or, in SR-preferred parlance, ‘vendors’ – the lure of a steady supply of international buyers was enough to motivate the investigation of innovative, stealthy shipping techniques that would see their packages of powders, crystals and pills delivered to intended addresses without raising the alarms of border security. This quickly became a point of pride among the most dedicated vendors, some of whom marketed their packaging options as ‘undetectable’ and cherished buyer feedback that praised innocuous, ingenious delivery methods. Subterfuge was the name of the game.

It helped, too, that SR offered vendors the opportunity to turn the risky, dangerous job of face-to-face dealing into the ultimate work-from-home gig. When I began poking around the site in late 2011, while researching a feature story for Australian Penthouse, I interviewed several vendors via SR’s plain-text messaging system. One told me that SR was “better and cleaner” than dealing drugs offline. “Customers are more educated and nice, and it leaves you more spare time to study, play with the kids, and clean the house,” I was told. “It’s telecommuting at its finest.”

Cont -

http://www.thevine.com.au/life/news...or-an-online-drug-revolution-20131003-266401/
 
oldirtybizza said:
I must be delusional for not conforming to your societal ideals, sorry what I meant to say was "you're number 1 , you're number 1" now I'll have an extra large soda, a groovy haircut, a rainbow flag , a double bacon cheeseburger, a beer with a bourbon chaser and wouldya mind putting on jersey shore. ahhhh now that's preferable to everyone.
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Please don't make blanket assumptions about all Americans (I think that was kind of the point). Even if you disagree with what a particular poster says (who happens to be American) it is not fair to lump all together and make sterotypical observations. I would never do that to others...everyone is to be judged for what they are...not where they live..anymore than the color of their skin. Maybe I just am naive and like to embrace peoples cultural differences too much but it seems a little unfair.

I personally (as most other Americans) can not be held responsible for Americas bullshit political agendas and ridiculous propoganda..and BTW, as most people with any common sense, I loathe Jersey Shore (but don't you know...they aren't Americans..they claim to be Italians!! Lol).
 
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