Online, he was known as “Dread Pirate Roberts” and according to authorities he owned the “most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the internet.”
His real name (as we reported yesterday), according to the FBI, is Ross William Ulbricht. Despite the FBI's claims that he owned the sprawling black market and made $1.2 billion from sales, the 29-year-old lived a fairly frugal lifestyle, paying $1,000 a month for a room in a San Francisco apartment he shared with two other roommates.
On Wednesday, the FBI said they had arrested Ulbricht and shut down the Silk Road website, which had become a thriving marketplace for illegal drugs, hacking tools, explosives and services from professional hitmen.
Ulbricht started the site in January 2011 under the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts,” an apparent reference to a fictional character in the book “The Princess Bride,” according to the FBI.
Undercover FBI agents made more than 100 drug purchases by collecting information on Silk Road located in 10 different countries.
Authorities have known about the site for some time. Senator Charles Schumer called it “a one-stop shop for illegal drugs that represents the most brazen attempt at online drug sales we have ever seen.” That statement was made in 2011. On Wednesday, Schumer issued a statement saying that “the country is safer now that this open marketplace of crime has been shut down.”
Ulbricht , to connect to Silk Road only accepted Bitcoin purchases.
He was overly protective of his users' identities, according to authorities. When someone threatened to release the names of Silk Road, Ulbricht allegedly hired someone else through Silk Road to kill him. Although there is no evidence that the killer was hired, the murder took place, according to the FBI.
“This kind of behavior is inexcusable to me,” Ulbricht reportedly said of the extortion, according to the FBI. “Especially here on Silk Road, anonymity is sacred and inviolable.”
Ulbricht on his website. He required sellers to package their drugs in vacuum-sealed packages to prevent detection by dogs. Another added security measure was for drug shipping, as he urged members of the website not to send or receive drugs to their home addresses.
Ulbricht, while very security conscious, did not always take precautions to protect his own anonymity. Authorities said they were led to his door when Canadian officials seized a package at the border containing fake IDs bearing his San Francisco apartment address. The FBI alleges that the fake IDs were for renting more servers for Silk Road. Ulbricht, to access Silk Road's servers, would visit an Internet cafe 200 meters from his home.
Information from Huffington Post reporters William Goodman and Andres Jauregui
