Ross Ulbricht – the alleged mastermind behind the Silk Road online drugs sales – has tried to have his alleged involvement to have six people killed quashed by his attorneys in his upcoming trial.

It has been alleged by prosecutors that Ulbricht, under the guise of the "Dread Pirate Roberts," tried to hire a contract killer to murder six people involved with Silk Road. The allegation is that he was trying to stop a former employee from testifying at his trial.

Ulbricht's lawyers asked that the matter of the alleged contract killings not be raised in the 30-year-old's upcoming trial "because the conduct alleged – which the government acknowledges did not result in any homicide or even violent behavior of any type – is irrelevant and/or unfairly prejudicial."

Prosecutors contend that no one was killed only because Ulbricht hired an undercover federal agent.

In court filings, prosecutors claim they have ample evidence to prove that Ulbricht intended to have the murders carried out:

To demonstrate the foregoing, the Government intends to offer into evidence at trial records of conversations between the defendant and [the purported killer] recovered from the Silk Road messaging system, as well as the chat log of the discussion between Ulbricht and [an associate]. The Government also intends to offer into evidence files from Ulbricht's laptop, including the log recovered from Ulbricht's laptop which includes entries regarding these murders for hire. Further, the Government intends to offer evidence from the public Blockchain demonstrating that the defendant made the payment of 3,000 Bitcoins ... for these murders for hire.


The allegation will not be heard in this trial, but will be addressed in a separate trial in Maryland, once the New York trial is completed.