At least six more arrests for Silk Road vendors and buyers are in the works according to a Wired article citing anonymous law enforcement agents. The continued police action comes as Ross Ulbricht, accused of being the founder of the Deep Web black market, sits in a Brooklyn, New York jail awaiting a Nov. 21 bail hearing.
According to the report, Homeland Security first found out about the Deep Web black market Silk Road from a simple anonymous tip to Maryland investigators in mid-2011.
Around the time that Gawker broke the news of the market’s existence to the world, a Baltimore-based multi-agency task force called “Marco Polo” was formed to take down Silk Road. The FBI, DEA, DHS, the IRS, U.S. Postal Inspection, U.S. Secret Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were all heavily involved, the anonymous law enforcement sources told Wired.
Before the end of 2011, DEA and FBI in New York began stockpiling evidence of drug sales, U.S. postal inspectors and Homeland Security border agents seized suspicious packages now tied to Silk Road transactions, and Maryland investigators took aim at “the top 1 percent of sellers and moderators and system administrators,” according to reporter Kim Zetter.
Meanwhile, Ulbricht’s attorney, Joshua Dratel, says his client is in “good spirits.”
Illustration by Jason Reed
