Those looking to follow in the footsteps of alleged cyber criminals should understand that we will return as many times as necessary to shut down noxious online criminal bazaars. Let’s be clear – this Silk Road, in whatever form, is the road to prison. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “As alleged, Blake Benthall attempted to resurrect Silk Road, a secret website that law enforcement seized last year, by running Silk Road 2.0, a nearly identical criminal enterprise. He will be presented later today in federal court in San Francisco before Magistrate Judge Jaqueline Scott Corley.
BENTHALL was arrested yesterday in San Francisco, California. Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, George Venizelos, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and Peter Edge, Executive Associate Director of Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), announced today the arrest of BLAKE BENTHALL, a/k/a “Defcon,” in connection with his operation and ownership of the Silk Road 2.0 website, a hidden website designed to enable its users to buy and sell illegal drugs and other unlawful goods and services anonymously and beyond the reach of law enforcement. Silk Road 2.0, Launched in November 2013 After Its Predecessor Was Shut Down by Law Enforcement, Has Enabled Over 100,000 People to Buy and Sell Illegal Drugs Anonymously Over the Internet OPERATOR OF “SILK ROAD 2.0” WEBSITE CHARGED IN MANHATTAN FEDERAL COURT In the criminal complaint, the FBI claims that Defcon, the screen name of the person who ran the site, instructed his employees to try and poach "bulk vendors and high-volume vendors" from competitors.Įlsewhere in the document, the FBI specifically references a tweet retweeted by Benthall on Nov. It seems that the Silk Road had an aggressive strategy to beat competing drug marketplaces.
Defcon expressed pride in that figure, going on to say "That's why we have to save this thing." The FBI also claims that the agency's undercover Silk Road account was paid for helping run the drug marketplace, receiving payments totaling $32,189 worth of Bitcoin. In conversations with an undercover FBI officer, Benthall allegedly claimed that the Silk Road had over 150,000 monthly active users. The FBI investigated the hack and discovered that $1,412,000 in Bitcoin had been stolen. In its criminal complaint, the FBI claims that by October 2014 the Silk Road 2.0 was processing $8 million in monthly sales. Additionally, the FBI claims that Benthall, using the online name "Defcon," contacted his support staff in September 2014 to inform them that an unknown hacker had stolen "all of the Bitcoins" from the marketplace. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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