“Man Charged With Operating Silk Road 2.0, a Black Market Website”
By: Benjamin Weiser
Source: New York
Times
Recently, a man was arrested for
starting an illegal online website meant to become the better version of the
Silk Road. The Silk Road was a black market website that illegally sold drugs
and other items using Bit coins. The new and improved Silk Road was
“designed to
enable users anywhere in the world to buy and sell illegal drugs and other
illegal goods and services anonymously and beyond the reach of law
enforcement,” the complaint said (Weiser, 1).This new website is supposed to
serve the same purpose as the original Silk Road.
The man behind the website, Blake
Benthall, was arrested and the website was shut down. This task was completed
with the help of an undercover homeland security agent. The agent infiltrated
the website and obtained access to the website’s private areas and was in
regular contact with Blake Benthall. The agent said that Benthall would use the
pseudonym “Defcon.” The website has managed to make about eight million dollars
in the monthly sales and has about 150,000 active users.
Benthall
is being charged with conspiracies of narcotics trafficking, computer hacking,
and money laundering. In recent weeks, the website has made listing for 14,000
drugs, one-hundred grams of afghan heroin brown power, a fake Danish passport,
and a fake New Jersey driver’s license.
The black
market is a factor that will be difficult to erase. Many people do not agree
with all the laws the government has passed. Due to this event, they try to
find alternatives to obtaining items that the government will not allow them to
have. This may not be the end of a website that will sell illegal items. People
will try to find a way to make money illegally because they know people will
pay for secret products.
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