Silk Road Mastermind Found Guilty on all Charges

The mastermind of the online drug emporium Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht, was found guilty on all seven charges including money laundering conspiracies, drug trafficking, and computer hacking. Ulbricht was also known as 'Dread Pirate Roberts,' the name of the fictional character from the novel “The Princess Bride.”

The online black market Silk Road was part of the Deep Web and operated as a hidden service. Deep Web or invisible website is the portion of World Wide Web content not indexed by standard search engines. Customers accessed the site via Tor, a network that protects the anonymity of users, and transactions were never paid for using credit cards or PayPal.

The only accepted means of payment on the site was Bitcoin, a currency that is almost impossible to trace. The Silk Road website was founded in February 2011 and its name comes from a historical network of trade routes. Knowledge about the existence of the website was only spread by word of mouth until Gawker published an article about it in June 2011.

After the article was published, Silk Road become public knowledge and a U.S senator asked federal law enforcement to take immediate action and to shut down the site.

If you ask his family members, Ross didn’t seem the type to be a criminal mastermind behind the black market. He seemed like a very smart, polite, and above all a good person. They couldn’t believe that Ross was the founder of Silk Road and denied any knowledge of the site.

Ulbricht, a student of physics at the University of Texas, was described as a good friend and exceptionally bright person. When the police seized his laptop they found written essays preaching anti-state libertarianism, claiming that he was giving the people first-hand experience of the world without systematic use of force.

In February 2013, Australian cocaine and ecstasy dealer Paul Leslie Howard became the first person convicted of crimes directly related to Silk Road. Even though the website was illegal and it was very risky, customers felt safe and adored the fact that they could buy drugs online without being caught.

Everything comes to an end eventually, however, and on October 2, 2013 the FBI entered the San Francisco public library where Ross was located at the time. He was working on his laptop, and as soon as he entered the passwords police seized his machine and marched him out.

According to FBI investigators, Ross earned about $18 million in Bitcoin through Silk Road and more than a million drug deals took place on the online market. During the investigation the FBI found out that Ross was willing to pay a huge amount of money and order a murder of five Silk Road users who threatened to reveal his identity, but no incriminating evidence was found to substantiate the accusations.

After three weeks of testimony, the jury reached its verdict. Ulbricht was found guilty on all seven charges, with sentencing scheduled for May 15. His lawyer, Joshua Dartel, tried to create doubt by saying that someone other than his client was operating Silk Road, but all the evidence pointed to Ulbricht.

Ross Ulbricht could face life in prison, but a 20-year term seems to be his best-case scenario. Until May 15 the destiny of 'Dread Pirate Roberts' will remain uncertain, but it is safe to say that it will not be a pleasant one.