Silk Road 2, the replacement for the now defunct and infamous Silk Road darknet drug marketplace, has been shut down by the FBI as well. The alleged operator, 26-year-old Blake Benthall, a software engineer at space transport company SpaceX, has been taken into FBI custody and is facing a maximum life sentence. From the FBI:
Law enforcement says they infiltrated the Silk Road 2 support staff and interacted directly with Benthall. In the criminal complaint, they discovered that the server was “controlled and maintained” by someone using the email “blake@benthall.net.” Benthall, a bitcoin enthusiast, was also the first person to purchase a car with bitcoins, buying a $127k Tesla electric roadster:
So a bitcoin-saavy rocket scientist decides to run an underground drug-trading website and registers it with his first name at the domain he owns? Christ, you’d think after the takedown of the first Silk Road and their bragtastic interview with Ars Technica, these people would be more careful. Of course there’s always Agora, Alpaca, Blue Sky, and a plethora of others. To access them, you’ll need to use Tor, so download the easy to use Tor Browser Bundle.
(Photo: Silk Road)
