Appeared for the first time in February 2011 in the US, the black website Silk Road (Silk Road) quickly became known by US players and some countries around the world as an online drug market.
It is run by a hidden program to help customers log in and buy and sell securely. Until Silk Road was destroyed by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the number of its transactions reached more than 1.5 million people and nearly $ 2 billion …
More than 1.2 million black transactions over 2 years The work started in mid-2010, Ross Ulbricht, born in 1984, obtained a master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, majoring in Computer Science but passionate about free economic theory. In February 2011, Ross and his two friends Jones and Smedley gave birth to the Silk Road website with the statement: “I create a model so that everyone can experience firsthand what we have. trading rights… ”. However, the things Ross sold for sale on the Silk Road site are murderous things. It includes heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, amphetamine, meth, marijuana, ecstasy … Customers who want to log into this website are required to buy an account and pay a monthly fee. After buying, Silk Road will provide them with a software that hides all information each time they log in to avoid the tracking of authorities such as the FBI, the US Drug Prevention Agency ( DEA). The average person who goes to the Silk Road site will only see it advertising about 10,000 products such as clothes, art works, books, cigarettes, jewelry … with public terms, such as “no sale or purchase. anything that has a malicious or deceptive purpose, including child pornography, stolen credit cards, weapons … ”but in fact, 70% of all goods sold online are drugs. Grouped with titles: Stimulants, hallucinogenic drugs, drug precursors, meth, opium, ecstasy, psychotropic drugs and steroids. Besides, there is also a fake driver’s license, but only members with access can access this “market”. Also to avoid being tracked, Silk Road’s server was located in Reykjavík, Iceland, while Ross took his alias (nickname) as Dread Pirate Roberts. All transactions on the Silk Road site are made with Bitcoin virtual currency, not cash. Ross Ulbricht, the owner of Silk Road. In June 2011, information about Silk Road began to appear in the press, making it famous, leading to increasing traffic. In this situation, an American senator, Mr. Charles Schumer, asked the FBI and DEA to close it. The collapse of Silk Road began in February 2013, when an Australian national cocaine and MDMA (ecstasy) dealer became the first person to be convicted for crimes directly related to Silk Road. While searching the man’s home, the police discovered files on his laptop that proved he bought drugs from Silk Road. In December 2013, Australian police cooperated with DEA to arrest another New Zealander when he had just received 15 grams of methamphetamine purchased on Silk Road. The FBI obtained 11.02 Bitcoins – equivalent to $ 814 at the time. According to the FBI and DEA, based on collected data, from February 3, 2012 to July 24, 2012, an estimated $ 15 million in transactions were made on Silk Road. “A significant increase in volume from $ 30 million to $ 45 million in a short period of time won’t do,” Nicolas Christin, a Silk Road researcher, said in an interview with the Global Economic news site. I am surprised. The buyer and seller make all transactions in the virtual currency Bitcoin in the form of Mr. A, for example, placing an order for Bitcoin at an investment channel – of course it is legal. Then, Mr. A sold to Mr. B – which is also legal but in fact, the Bitcoin A sold to B is the amount to pay to buy drugs. Silk Road holds A’s Bitcoins through B’s account until A receives the goods. However, by the time A transfers Bitcoin to B, Silk Road will activate a hedging mechanism that allows B to retain the value of Bitcoin relative to the USD. Any change in Bitcoin price that occurs in the process of not being delivered to A, Silk Road is not responsible ”. According to the FBI and DEA, from February 6, 2011 to July 23, 2013, there were 1,229,465 completed transactions on the Silk Road website with the participation of 146,946 people, of which 30% came from the United States. followed by UK, Australia, Germany, Canada, Sweden, France, Russia, Italy and the Netherlands. The rest about 27% did not declare their address. Also during the 60-day period from May 24 to July 23, 1,217,218 messages were sent through Silk Road’s own system. The ecstasy sells on Silk Road for 0.69 Bitcoin 1 gram, but requires an account to log in. Make billions of dollars by selling drugs through the web At 3:15 p.m. on October 2, 2013, Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, was arrested while in the Glen Park library, San Francisco city, California on charges of buying, selling, transporting narcotics, money laundering, illegally entering computer networks. Initially, the FBI seized 26,000 Bitcoins from Silk Road accounts, equivalent to $ 36 million (as of 2013). Near the end of October, the FBI collected an additional 144,342 Bitcoins, worth $ 87 million. The capture of Ross is also not easy because Silk Road operates on the hidden operating system, The Onion Router. First, FBI computer experts discovered Ross’s email address on the Gmail website. In those emails, a number of files were sent to a person named Altoid. From there the FBI knew that Altoid had once posted an article on a forum about the virtual currency Bitcoin, asking experts in the field to email him at an address. Following that address, the FBI found it linked to multiple Gmail accounts. Youtube and Linkedin all share the same destination, Silk Road. And because every time online, Ross uses the VPN protocol to conceal his location, so the FBI has to apply for a court order, requiring the internet provider to publish Ross’s VPN. It leads to an internet cafe in San Francisco and eventually a library in the Glen Park neighborhood, where Ross was arrested. Ross’ trial began on January 13, 2015 in Manhattan Federal Court. During the interrogation, Ross admitted he had founded the Silk Road website but he said that he transferred the admin rights to someone else shortly after Silk Road was born. In defense of Ross, the lawyers assumed that the nickname Dread Pirate Roberts was actually Mark Karpeles, and Karpeles used Ross to commit illegal acts. However, Judge Katherine B. Forrestra ruled, dismissing all of these excuses During the second week of the trial, the prosecutor presented documents and chat logs from Ross’s computer, proving he directly managed Silk Road using BitTorren software to conceal all manipulations. on the Silk Road site for both drug dealers and buyers. When the FBI arrested Ross, his personal computer was still running the software. Silk Road drugs sent to buyers by mail were seized by the FBI. On February 4, 2015, a jury convicted Ross of seven offenses, including “continuous participation in a criminal business, drug trafficking, intentional concealment of income, money laundering and trespassing. illegal computer entry ”. Ross was sentenced to life in prison without parole. It is worth noting that during the trial, Judge Forrest received death threats multiple times. On a website called The Hidden Wiki, someone posted Judge Forrest’s personal information, including his home address and social security number. Ross’s attorney Joshua Dratel stated that he and his client “strongly condemned anonymous posts concerning Judge Forrest”. “Ross has nothing to do with the site, and his The Hidden Wiki posts do not reflect his opinion,” Dratel said. In a letter to Judge Forrest prior to his sentencing, Ross said his actions through Silk Road were an expression of liberal economicism, and: “Silk Road was created to give everyone the right to their own choices, “but Ross also admitted” made a terrible mistake, ruined a lifetime. ” On May 29, 2015, a jury of the Manhattan Federal Court ruled that Ross had to serve 5 sentences, including 2 life sentences without parole, Ross was also confiscated $ 183 million. On May 31, 2017, the Court of Appeal rejected Ross’s appeal and the Supreme Court also refused to review Ross’ case. Parallel to the Ross trial, the court also brought to the trial two federal agents who secretly investigated Silk Road. One of these two is Carl Mark, a DEA employee, and the other is agent Shaun Bridges. Both took Ross’ money for falsely reporting Silk Road activities. Among the more than 130 suspects arrested by the FBI for drug trafficking and money laundering, there is Dutch drug dealer Cornelis Jan “Maikel” Slomp, 23, who was accused of buying and selling drugs on a large scale through the site. web Silk Road and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Another, Steven Sadler, was sentenced to five years in prison. In addition, there are two Silk Road administrators Andrew Michael Jones and Gary Davis with the nicknames “Inigo” and “Libertas”, both of which were also sentenced to prison. Shortly after Silk Road collapsed, on the Internet, there suddenly appeared a website Silk Road 2.0, operated by the nickname “Defcon”. On February 13, 2014, Defcon announced that $ 2.7 million in Silk Road 2.0’s escrow accounts had been stolen, but he promised to return the full amount to the account holders. On November 6, 2014, the FBI arrested Blake Benthall, who ran Silk Road 2.0 under the name “Defcon” with an Englishman, Thomas White, who started the website Silk Road 2.0 but information about the arrest. only announced by the FBI in 2019. Yet, in order to “follow” the Silk Road brand, in January 2015, Diabolus Market launched the Silk Road Reloaded website with features similar to Ross’ Silk Road. but it was also taken down by the FBI. On November 3, 2020, FBI agents specialized in currency tracking discovered 2 transactions with a total of 69,370 Bitcoins, worth about $ 1 billion at that time, made from a related address. Silk Road website. Investigation results showed that this Bitcoin belongs to an individual with the nickname “X”. who bought Bitcoin from Silk Road before it collapsed. According to the FBI, they are still investigating this address to see if it is a new generation Silk Road, or just the remaining issues of Silk Road.
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