If there’s an arrest in tech black history that fits the saying ‘truth is always stranger than fiction’, it’s probably this one. Ross William Ulbricht, aka Dread Pirate Roberts, the mastermind of the Silk Road. And there’s a very simple reason for that: aside from its background—a massive gravity that leaves little room for jokes—the operation looked more like something out of a Sunday sitcom than a complex maneuver orchestrated by the FBI. Absolutely nothing to suspect that the handcuffed person is the “Internet drug kingpin.”

Even the most creative Hollywood screenwriters couldn’t think of anything similar. For starters, Ulbricht looked like anything but a top criminal wanted by the feds. A slender, straight, messy-haired ex-Scout in his early twenties who is fond of playing Djembe, a Physics graduate and a former scout who has a deep interest in libertarian economic theory and spends day and night glued to his computer. Cultured and intelligent, true, but not careful enough to avoid the mistakes that occasionally lead the police to chase him.

The setting and operation were also not ‘SWAT’ worthy. they stopped him October 2013, in a San Francisco public library, Ulbricht was typing while leaning over his laptop. The only thing that worried the agents when they put gloves on him was that Ulbricht might be able to encrypt or destroy valuable information for the case when he sees them; ‘Harrelson’s men’: They set up a funny little theater behind him to mislead him enough to snatch the device from him.

However, appearances aside, this was indeed a police operation of extraordinary importance. For both tech annals and police history.

“eBay of drugs”

That fall, nine years ago, the FBI arrested none other than the creator of an online selling service nicknamed “eBay for hard drugs,” which, in addition to narcotics, has an extensive catalog of illegal products, including poisons, guns, hacking. far more obscure forums where supposedly discussing services, fraud, and even contract killings. All under the protection of anonymity and with a payment system Bitcoin-based.

The case was so high-profile, so important and so important that the hangover has yet to subside just after 2023. To understand this, it wouldn’t hurt to review who Ulbricht is and, above all, what the Silk Road is, where he is still behind bars to this day.

In early 2011, and after a not-so-live experience as an entrepreneur that included selling books online, Ulbricht decided to launch what would become his big project: “A website where people can buy anything. anonymously without the possibility of being followed,” he wrote in his diary. The result was the Silk Road, which began in mid-January 2011 with the sale of hallucinogenic mushrooms grown by Ulbricht himself. To protect his identity, the young man also adopted a pseudonym with literary repercussions: Dread Pirate Roberts.

On Silk Road, users can trade anonymously using the Tor network and Bitcoin payments. At least initially, it banned any commercial product intended to “harm or defraud”, excluding child pornography or guns, among other things. Whether Ulbricht likes it or not, Silk Road has grown into a huge online black market over time. A review of the series of nicknames it earned over the years gives an idea of ​​its ambiguous nature: “The first marketplace of the deep web”, “The big super pharmacy on the Internet” or “eBay of drugs”. Dread Pirate Roberts himself ended up with the label “Digital king of the web.”

This photo was taken about 4 years ago. It’s me with some friends who are nonviolent criminals serving life sentences.

So far, 3 of them have caught their miracle and gone home. They’re doing well, they’re not a danger to anyone. I pray that other men get their miracles soon. pic.twitter.com/LRF5lIDF8D

— Ross Ulbricht (@RealRossU) August 4, 2022

As Silk Road’s popularity grew, so did Ulbricht’s business, of course. The FBI details how juicy this marketing has become: “Silk Road received a commission […]. Although the fee varies depending on the size of the transaction, it usually 8% to 15% “Percentage of total sales”. The buyer’s bitcoins were first transferred to an escrow account held by Silk Road, and the currencies were transferred to the seller’s address after the transaction was completed. Easy, fast and above all extremely convenient and anonymous.

By the time Ulbricht was arrested, it’s estimated that more than 150,000 Internet users took advantage of this structure to sell drugs and other illegal goods, generating a significant amount of business. How much exactly? In 2013, it was estimated that the manager earned close to a million dollars a year through commissions and agents seized Ulbricht bitcoins, which were worth about $3.6 million at the time, making it the largest currency seizure to date. .

One such volume eventually caught the attention of the authorities, and in the fall of 2013, Ulbricht set the gears of a complex investigation that resulted in the arrest of aka Dread Pirate Roberts in a San Francisco library. not undisputed: A DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agent was jailed for bitcoin theft during investigations, and another Secret Service agent was jailed.

The San Francisco police operation had a sharp before and after in Ulbricht’s life. Less than a year and a half after his arrest, in February 2015, a Manhattan jury found him guilty of drug trafficking, money laundering, computer hacking, and four other charges. In the FBI letter, the FBI accused Ulbricht of paying a Silk Road user $150,000 to kill someone else who threatened to expose data on the web.

The punishment given to former Dread Pirate Roberts was as exemplary as it sounded: two life sentences, 40 years in prison and a significant financial penalty. “To be clear. Judge Katherine Forrests said, “No one is above the law. Now you have to pay the price,” she said.

Almost ten years behind bars

As the Free Ross Ulbricht website reports, since 2013 the founder of Silk Road has spent his days behind bars, where he began studying Psychology from afar and, with the help of his family, tries to keep his struggle for success alive. presidential pardon. On Change.org, they are running a campaign to ask for “mercy”, which already has more than half a million signatures. There were even those who believed that the measure of grace was approaching under former President Donald Trump.

“I turned 38 yesterday, my ninth anniversary in prison. I made a timeline of my life with my death estimated at 80 years. Prison has been an important phase of my life so far. I’m not the man I was when I walked in. In a quote that Ross Ulbricht collected on his Freeros page that influenced his good behavior behind bars, I learned from my mistakes and damage.” He assures that in 2018, authorities had to transfer him from Florence prison to Tucson prison – where he is currently serving his sentence – for refusing to participate in an attack.

However, its public projection extends far beyond the walls of Tucson.

He has a Ross Ulbricht account on Twitter. around 148,000 followers It’s run by a “loved” – as detailed in her profile – who provides up-to-date information on her life and reflections. She also posts on her eponymous Medium blog where she talks about bitcoins, social networks or NFTs, among other topics. At the end of 2021, Ulbricht launched an art and NFT project at an auction that raised more than six million dollars. for your campaign and the Art4Giving initiative, which focuses on the children of prisoners.

His case continues to leave surprises. In 2020, it was published that the Silk Road bitcoin fortune changed hands for the first time in seven years, and a few months ago it was reported that Ulbricht had agreed to pay his fine of 183 million.

Perhaps the most ironic thing about the case is that Ulbricht’s arrest and exemplary sentence did not serve to put an end to this murder altogether. the seed sown by the silk road. Shortly after the online store was arrested and shut down, news broke out on Reddit that it would reopen. The so-called “Silk Road 2.0” didn’t last long either: It was liquidated the following year as part of Operation Onymous. With more or less success and travel, other startups have also appeared on the dark web, such as Black Goblin Market, Utopia, AlphaBay, ASAP Market, Hydra or Versus Market.

The Silk Road remains an important and turbulent chapter in Internet history. One of the most controversial chronicles of Ross William Ulbricht is still marked by the double vision that emerged during his trial: An idealistic young man? just then, he saw how a project spiraled out of control, as the defense presented; or a clever mob profiting from illegal trade?

Top image: Freeross