poledriver
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2005
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Mastermind behind online drug marketplace Silk Road 2.0 gives his confessions
ROSS ULRICH is still firmly locked inside a federal penitentiary for masterminding the most infamous online black market the world had ever seen.
Despite life without the possibility of parole being handed down to the creator of the Silk Road, the dark net is still alive and well — some would even say flourishing.
Similar to any black market, when a kingpin falls, another will rise just as fast.
In this case, that kingpin was a man known as Dread Pirate Roberts 2 — the creator of Silk Road 2.0.
As a Silk Road veteran, DPR2 led the relaunch of the drug marketplace, which was ready to go live just one month after its predecessor was closed.
“I think I must have sat there for five minutes staring at the screen. Once you hit that enter button, you’ve just launched something that you know there is going to be an absolutely f****ing huge manhunt after you,” he told Motherboard.
“Upon launching the site, I just started laughing at one point, hysterically, for about 30 seconds. It’s so many emotions combined into one.”
DPR2 knew he had already crossed a line, yet decided to take things one step further by taunting law enforcement on the login page for Silk Road 2.0.
After the launch of the website, DPR2 said he faced the challenge of keeping his private life and his role of online drug kingpin separate.
He said on one particular evening he was cooking dinner for his friends, while simultaneously running his multi-million dollar drug empire from his laptop.
“The laptop was open in the kitchen, which had stuff running on it. None of them are IT guys, they didn’t understand it,” he said. “But I knew what it was.”
DPR2 said he was constantly struggling to keep his involvement with Silk Road 2.0.
“At some point, you have to lie to someone. You have to deceive people,” he said.
“Having a massive, multimillion-dollar drug operation in the background is quite a secret.”
The online drug marketplace kingpin said as the months went by, he started to question his actions more and more.
“It does put a certain question mark on yourself. If I’m not saying the truth, if I’m hiding stuff from them, what kind of person does that make me?” he said.
“Going out drinking was always a little bit risky, because of the chance that if you have too much to drink, you might say something.
“There’s always that level of paranoia that surrounded it all.”
After successfully running for more than a year, Silk Road 2.0 was shut down in November 2014 following co-ordinated arrests across the globe.
While others involved in the running of the site were all captured, DPR2 manage to elude authorities after being tipped off from multiple sources inside law enforcement.
“If more than one source or different countries know about it, it’s international, it’s going to be big,” he said.
After the arrests, DPR2 went into hiding, which fuelled speculation he had been captured in the raids.
“It has now been over 24 hours since we last heard from our Captain,” one user wrote on the Silk Road 2.0 forums. “He is most certainly in grave danger.”
Following the arrest, court documents obtained from an FBI special agent described the drug marketplace as “one of the most extensive, sophisticated, and widely-used criminal marketplaces on the internet today”, which generated “sales of at least
approximately $8 million in United States currency per month.”
Today, Silk Road 2.0 is long gone, but more drug marketplaces have filled its void.
DPR2 is still a free man after successful avoiding capture and has no regrets for his role in creating the drug marketplace.
“I cannot deny the fact that some people have died from what they bought on what I’ve made, effectively,” he said.
“But, if I didn’t act, what would be the consequences of that?
“Would more people have died, would more overdoses have happened, would people have gone back into the habit of funding certain street dealers or something?”
In total, DPR2 claims to have only made around four figures while working on the website, despite claims it was clearing $400,000 per day.
He suggests most of the money obtained through the website was donated to organisations with direct links to technology and drug policy.
DPR2 claims to have given the money away as it was not his main motive for running the website, instead it was the rush of breaking law.
“There are some levels of entertainment that, once you’ve reached — it’s like a drug, you can’t get off it again, once you’ve reached it,” he said.
“Most people will never really experience, because of the nature of it.
“How many people can give the US government the two fingers, sat there, with just their laptop? There’s nothing on Earth that you can really compare that to.”
http://www.news.com.au/technology/o...s/news-story/7aed76678b0a34f19e72cae6ca291033
ROSS ULRICH is still firmly locked inside a federal penitentiary for masterminding the most infamous online black market the world had ever seen.
Despite life without the possibility of parole being handed down to the creator of the Silk Road, the dark net is still alive and well — some would even say flourishing.
Similar to any black market, when a kingpin falls, another will rise just as fast.
In this case, that kingpin was a man known as Dread Pirate Roberts 2 — the creator of Silk Road 2.0.
As a Silk Road veteran, DPR2 led the relaunch of the drug marketplace, which was ready to go live just one month after its predecessor was closed.
“I think I must have sat there for five minutes staring at the screen. Once you hit that enter button, you’ve just launched something that you know there is going to be an absolutely f****ing huge manhunt after you,” he told Motherboard.
“Upon launching the site, I just started laughing at one point, hysterically, for about 30 seconds. It’s so many emotions combined into one.”
DPR2 knew he had already crossed a line, yet decided to take things one step further by taunting law enforcement on the login page for Silk Road 2.0.
After the launch of the website, DPR2 said he faced the challenge of keeping his private life and his role of online drug kingpin separate.
He said on one particular evening he was cooking dinner for his friends, while simultaneously running his multi-million dollar drug empire from his laptop.
“The laptop was open in the kitchen, which had stuff running on it. None of them are IT guys, they didn’t understand it,” he said. “But I knew what it was.”
DPR2 said he was constantly struggling to keep his involvement with Silk Road 2.0.
“At some point, you have to lie to someone. You have to deceive people,” he said.
“Having a massive, multimillion-dollar drug operation in the background is quite a secret.”
The online drug marketplace kingpin said as the months went by, he started to question his actions more and more.
“It does put a certain question mark on yourself. If I’m not saying the truth, if I’m hiding stuff from them, what kind of person does that make me?” he said.
“Going out drinking was always a little bit risky, because of the chance that if you have too much to drink, you might say something.
“There’s always that level of paranoia that surrounded it all.”
After successfully running for more than a year, Silk Road 2.0 was shut down in November 2014 following co-ordinated arrests across the globe.
While others involved in the running of the site were all captured, DPR2 manage to elude authorities after being tipped off from multiple sources inside law enforcement.
“If more than one source or different countries know about it, it’s international, it’s going to be big,” he said.
After the arrests, DPR2 went into hiding, which fuelled speculation he had been captured in the raids.
“It has now been over 24 hours since we last heard from our Captain,” one user wrote on the Silk Road 2.0 forums. “He is most certainly in grave danger.”
Following the arrest, court documents obtained from an FBI special agent described the drug marketplace as “one of the most extensive, sophisticated, and widely-used criminal marketplaces on the internet today”, which generated “sales of at least
approximately $8 million in United States currency per month.”
Today, Silk Road 2.0 is long gone, but more drug marketplaces have filled its void.
DPR2 is still a free man after successful avoiding capture and has no regrets for his role in creating the drug marketplace.
“I cannot deny the fact that some people have died from what they bought on what I’ve made, effectively,” he said.
“But, if I didn’t act, what would be the consequences of that?
“Would more people have died, would more overdoses have happened, would people have gone back into the habit of funding certain street dealers or something?”
In total, DPR2 claims to have only made around four figures while working on the website, despite claims it was clearing $400,000 per day.
He suggests most of the money obtained through the website was donated to organisations with direct links to technology and drug policy.
DPR2 claims to have given the money away as it was not his main motive for running the website, instead it was the rush of breaking law.
“There are some levels of entertainment that, once you’ve reached — it’s like a drug, you can’t get off it again, once you’ve reached it,” he said.
“Most people will never really experience, because of the nature of it.
“How many people can give the US government the two fingers, sat there, with just their laptop? There’s nothing on Earth that you can really compare that to.”
http://www.news.com.au/technology/o...s/news-story/7aed76678b0a34f19e72cae6ca291033
