The FBI takes down Silk Road

Ross William Ulbricht was arrested in San Francisco yesterday and charging him not only with the distribution of illegal drugs including heroin and LSD, but also with a number of computer hacking crimes. It harkens the demise of the website Silk Road, the underground drug market.

Ulbricht, known as Dread Pirate Roberts, arrested Ulbricht inside the San Francisco Public Library. Federal prosecutors in New York filed narcotics trafficking, hacking and money laundering charges against Ulbricht, alleging that since January 2011 he ran an online platform where numerous dealers could peddle drugs, in addition to malware such as password stealers, keyloggers and remote access tools, the federal filing said.

The FBI seized The Silk Road websites along with millions of dollars in Bitcoins. Silk Road was accessible only through the Tor network. Court papers said Silk Road had generated $1.2 billion in sales.