Many times in drug busts, law enforcement has a way of getting a little black book of the dealer's costomers; however, with this online drug trafficking site and it's 21st century use of intrackable bitcoin currency, FBI are (as of today) unable to track the millions of drug-buyers and hitmen-users around the world. Last year the site even added a "stealth mode" option to "those who feel they're of risk of becoming a target of law enforcement."
Though the intellegent programmer was very careful in creating an intrackable sight, this Dread Pirate Roberts fell victim to his own sloppiness, a sloppiness which led to his capture. Someone using the handle "Altoid" made a post on a forum called Bitcoin Talk, recommending Silk Road and providing a link. "Has anyone seen Silk Road yet? It's kind of like an anonymous Amazon.com. I don't think they have heroin on there, but they are selling other stuff," it read. Eight months later, "Altoid" made another posting on Bitcoin Talk, stating he was looking for "an IT pro in the Bitcoin community" to hire in connection with "a venture backed Bitcoin startup company." The posting asked interested parties to contact rossulbricht@gmail.com. This email address was the break in this case FBI agents needed to crack the biggest drug dealing cite on the internet.
Records obtained from Google showed Ulbricht had regularly logged into his Gmail account from a San Francisco Internet café near Ulbricht's home; it was at this internet café that FBI agents arrested Ulbricht for narcotics trafficking, computer hacking, and money laundering.
 |
| money.cnn.com |
As for the Dread Pirate Roberts, you may or may not know that this position has been a "job" for centuries, dating back to when the Dread Pirate Roberts of the 1700s trafficked gold from country to country, destroying any ships that came in his way. The pirate had a good-sized crew, though none of the crew mates knew what their captain loked like, for he wore a mask. This mask was the key to how the Dread Pirate Roberts has seemed to live forever. See, once "Roberts" decided it was time to retire, he would choose a hard-working member of the crew and pass the "Roberts" name on to him along with the mask. The name "Roberts" was like the calling card of the trafficking name, used to strike fear in others. Now, in the 21st century, the "Dread Pirate Roberts" is no longer surfing the seven seas, rather surfing the internet and its globalizing capabilities. Somewhere along the way, drug gold trafficking became drug trafficking, and ships became IP addresses and black market websites. The most recent Dread Pirate Roberts created Silk Road. It's unknown if Ulbricht was able to name another Dread Pirate Roberts before his capture, thoughy it's widely accepted that even if he hadn't gotten the chance, an employee of Silk Road will take the "Roberts" name and keep drug trafficking strong. Silk Road's closure is unlikely to bring an end to the trade of illegal goods on the "dark web," as similar sites operate on the Tor network and continue to thrive.
No comments:
Post a Comment