On October 1st 2013 Federal agents entered a public library in. San Francisco they arrested 29 year old Ross Albrecht Albrecht ran the largest, most sophisticated online market for illegal drugs in history. he named it Silk Road a reference to the ancient trade mass that connected China to Europe beginning in the second century BC Albrecht Hoped to create his own modern day except his would sell hardcore drugs and other illegal Goods over the two years in 10 months that Silkrid operated Federal Prosecutors say it processed nearly 214 million in sales using Bitcoin The site operated on a hidden part of the internet called the Dark Web Prosecutors because I hate that I know this much about this again but wasn't it I don't want to glaze and I hope I don't I'm not using some of somebody who backs up crime. but but at the time there was, it was their review based and people uh, were harshly a criticized.

um, how good the products were right? So if they trolled and if she was laced or or cooked them, they would get cooked them right. Which means that people were getting exactly what they paid for which you know, yo yo you know, say a journal. The FBI found on Ulbrich's computer stated he wanted to create a website where people could buy anything. These days people die because if I can um on on the one overdose like that on like Fender lunches like that, right? I mean if you're gonna get a product that's a legal one, dude, at least you know I know you're getting at least anonymously with no Trail whatsoever.

That could lead back to them. Unfortunately for Albrecht he did leave a trail of digital breadcrumbs that ultimately took him down and his Empire with it. Albrecht Was born on March 17, 1984 in Austin Texas He was a Boy Scout attaining the highest rank of Eagle Scout just like his dad had done. He had a happy childhood growing up in easy-going hipster but serious student who scored 1460 on his SATs within the 96th percentile and got a full ride to the University of Texas at Austin where he studied physics.

He then won another full scholarship for a masters at Penn State in Material Science and Engineering It was at Penn that he evolved into a hardcore Libertarian, a political philosophy that Advocates individualism and minimal State involvement in people's lives. He was a fan and follower of Libertarian Economist Ludwig Von Misis who opposed government interference in the economy. When then Presidential candidate Mitt Romney asked what is America's greatest challenge Albrecht Respect bonded like this on his YouTube channel? you know? But I think the most important thing is getting us out of the United Nations Albert Wanted to create a world free from institutional or government control. That mindset led him to create Silk Road in January 2011.

you couldn't type in a normal web address to get to Silk Road or use a normal web browser. You needed software called Tor that works as a web browser. Tor was developed by the US Navy as a way of communicating privately over the Internet It conceals the real IP address of computers on the network to hide the identity of the user and it can't be traced by the government. Silk Road's address used a bunch of random numbers in letters that ended with DOT onion Albrecht Made the site by teaching himself how to code.

When he needed more help, he reached out on a Bitcoin Community Forum writing I'm looking for the best and brightest it Pro In the Bitcoin Community to be the lead developer in a venture-backed Bitcoin startup company, anyone interested was to contact him via his email Ross Elbricht Gmail dot com. Making his email public would later come back to haunt him. Oh no! He also got coding help from a buddy of his from undergrad. Richard Bates Albrecht Had no choice but to eventually tell his friend what he was up to.

He also told his girlfriend Julia V One day he showed her the Psychedelic mushrooms he was growing and selling as a starter product on his new website. Silk Road would eventually be a Marketplace for all kinds of drugs weed, cocaine, LSD ecstasy, heroin. This fit Albrecht's Libertarian mindset. He believed that whatever someone decided to put in their body was their choice and no one else's least of all the governments.

Albrecht Also believed everyone had the right to self-defense when guns started appearing on. Silk Road However, he realized he didn't need the controversy and soon took weapons off the site. After getting his business up and running, he turned his attention to attracting customers. He decided to write a post on a Magic mushrooms Forum called the Shreemery pretending to be someone who happened to come across Silk Road He used the username Altoid posting I'm thinking of buying off it, but wanted to see if anyone here had heard of it and could recommend it.

He included a link with instructions on how to access. Silk Road He did the same on a Bitcoin Community Forum about buying and selling heroin. describing Silk Road as an anonymous Amazon.com It wasn't long before buyers showed up to limit scams. There was a rating system for sellers similar to Amazon reviews.

If a seller sold bad drugs and got a poor rating, it would hurt their sales. The drugs arrived by mail with fake return addresses. They'd be slipped inside CD and DVD cases. Some sellers got even more creative and put them in little ripples of cardboard.

The packages had printed mailing labels rather than handwritten ones to look like they came from a legitimate business. Ironically, that backfired printed labels actually attracted the suspicion of authorities in the summer of 2011. Department of Homeland Security Agent Jared Der Yagian learned of a small, neat package with a printed address going through Chicago's O'Hare International Airport It contained a single pink pill of ecstasy, which was also suspicious because usually they shipped in bulk. Soon two or three packages begin arriving, then 50, then up to a thousand a day.

Many came from the Netherlands which is a notorious source of drugs. Agent Duryegean visited an address where one of the packages was to be delivered, chatted with the roommate of the buyer who said the drugs came from a site called Silk Road Duryegean had never heard of Silk Road before. He did some digging online and came across an article written by Gawker journalist Adrian Chen in June 2011. Chen Wrote making small talk with your pot dealer sucks.

Buying cocaine can get you shot. What? if you could buy and sell drugs online like books or light bulbs now you can welcome to Silk Road The article attracted 3 million views and put Silk Road on the map. Not only did Silk Road soon attract the attention of thousands of drug dealers and buyers, but also politicians like Senator Chuck Schumer who called for the site to be shut down. the U.S government was concerned but not only about drug sales as Nick built in detailed in his book.

American Kingpin Homeland Security Agent Duryegean feared that a terrorist organization could enter the country and then buy something from Silk Road to harm. Americans He convinced the U.S attorney's Office in Chicago to take on the case. As Silk Road came into the spotlight, Ulbrich's College straight for it said he urged him to shut it down. Ulbricht and his girlfriend Julia broke up soon after the launch of Silk Road.

She said one of the reasons was because of the insane pressure she felt to keep his secret Albrecht lied to her and Richard telling them he had sold the business to someone else and no longer had anything to do with it. He moved to Australia for a while and lived with his sister in Sydney. Around this time, he was contacted through the site by a person going by the name variety Jones Variety Jones became his right hand man and someone Albert described as a real Mentor neither knew the other's true identity. variety Jones pointed out that gaping holes in Security on Silk Road Albrecht decided to encrypt all the files on his computer this is the actual laptop he used to run Silk Road He put in a kill switch that would automatically shut down his device by pressing a predetermined key in case authorities rushed in at the last minute.

He also prepared an escape plan if needed, including destroy laptop hard drive. find a place to live on Craigslist for cash with a new identity variety Jones came up with Albrecht's Infamous synonym on Silk Road dread Pirate Roberts What a reference. Otherwise they could do forensic uh, a reversal. Oh, encrypted the files, then it can be okay, yeah and input encrypted and then showing down fearsome captains from the film The Princess Bride who passed the name on to a chosen successor in the same way Albrecht Hoped to one day pass on the name Dread Pirate Roberts to someone who might succeed him.

Variety: Jones Got him to see how big Silk Road could grow to be Albrecht wrote in a personal Journal disclosed by prosecutors Silk Road is going to become a phenomenon in at least one person will tell me about it and knowing that I was its creator. in two short years, Silk Road grew to more than a hundred thousand users with sales of nearly 214 million, including 13.2 million in commissions for Silk Road According to Prosecutors, the feds were left scratching their heads as they still had no clue who was The Mastermind behind Silk Road Who was this dread Pirate Roberts who was the captain of the ship. It became someone of a competition amongst the various government agencies to be the one to identify Dread Pirate Roberts To better understand how Silk Road operated Department of Homeland Security Agent Duryegean posed as a buyer and made 52 undercover purchases. He also seized thousands of packages, linked certain sales back to their source, and arrested several people.

His biggest get came when he tracked down a Dread Pirate Robert's employee a moderator on Silk Road's user forums going by the name Cirrus He forced her to hand over her account and then he pretended to be her during losing a series. Got assignments directly from Dread Pirate Roberts He wasn't the only federal agent chatting with a Silk Road boss. DEA Agent Carl Force was part of a task force in Baltimore that was also investigating Force Used the username knob and posed as a drug dealer originally from the Dominican Republic who smuggled millions of dollars worth of cocaine and heroin into the U.S Every year he was on friendly terms with Thread Pirate Roberts who had no idea he was speaking with the DEA agent an agent who in a Twist in the tail turned out to be corrupt Force convinced Dread Pirate Roberts to pay him fifty thousand dollars in Bitcoin by claiming he had Insider information from a government employee. When Force reported the conversation, he claimed he never received any payment when in fact he funneled the Bitcoin into a personal account and believe it or not, a second agent who worked on the same Baltimore task force was also stealing Secret Service agent Sean Bridges When Silk Road Customer support rep Curtis Clark Green was arrested at his home with a kilo of coke.

Bridges used Green's Admin access to steal 20 000 Bitcoin from other user accounts. Dread Pirate Roberts Thought Green to be responsible for the theft. He wanted to rough him up and got egged on by his mentor. Variety: Jones Dread Pirate Roberts New Green's real identity because as a condition for being on Silk Road's payroll, staff had to hand over their government ID Dread Pirate Robert Roberts turned to Knob AKA DEA Agent Carl Force to beat up greed.

Knob agreed. However, Dread Pirate Roberts then changed his mind and messaged can you change the order to execute rather than torture Dread Pirate Robert said he had quote never killed a man or had one killed before but it is the right move In this case he didn't want to risk. Green Giving Up Information to the authorities as he knew he had been arrested when he searched him up online. Knob agreed to do the job for eighty thousand dollars in Bitcoin Albrecht later received photos of a dead green except he wasn't really dead.

Agent 4 staged Green's death, complete with photos of him on the floor covered in Campbell's chicken and stars soup. The Dread Pilot Roberts is said to have ordered hits on five others whom he felt threatened by. Silk Road had been prey for blackmailers and extortionists. However, there was no proof that anyone was ever killed.

Albrecht was never charged with murder for hire. The government agencies were still nowhere closer to figuring out who was Dread Pirate Roberts The DEA Enlisted the help of the FBI Cyber Crime team in New York as it had more technological know-how including experience with the dark web site. this is propaganda propagate about weather propaganda like what in Chris Tarbell knew that in order to catch Dread Pirate Roberts they had to wait for them to make a mistake and according to the FBI The Dread pirate Roberts did finally slip up. About a year after the agency started investigating in May 2013, investigators noticed upcoming errors vulnerabilities on the Silk Road website that leaked IP addresses.

As a result, they discovered the Silk Road servers were housed in a data center in Iceland. By the way, Ulbrich's defense team doesn't buy this explanation. They believe the NSA spied illegally and tipped off the FBI to the server's location agent. Tarbell flew to Reykjavik where Icelandic authorities gave him a drive with information from the servers.

the FBI accessed a treasure Trove of data they could see the number of transactions processed, who logged in and out, and crucially Tarbell in a world where where the as some experts got together right in court and they were to prove that that the government a spied and used illegal title to get them right, would there be any backlash or sort of a social like riots or I don't think anybody would give a I don't think people do at all and his team had identified that the master computer Silk Road servers talked to the one Dread Pirate Roberts used to log into Silk Road was named Frosty and Dread pirate Roberts was logging in with an encryption key that ended with Frosty at Frosty. They could also tell Dread Pirate Roberts recently used internet from a San Francisco Cafe to log into a Silk Road server via a VPN. By the spring of 2012, Albrecht had returned home from Australia and eventually moved to San Francisco to live with a childhood friend. So now the FBI had the name of the computer and could focus their search on San Francisco but still no idea of Dread Pirate Robert's real identity.

That piece of the puzzle would be filled in by Gary Alford who worked for the IRS the Internal Revenue Service as a tax investor. Of course he was assigned to follow the money but instead discovered the identity of Dread Pirate Roberts Alfred Figured that whoever started Silk Road would have had to drum up interest in it long before that Gawker article came out. So we decided to do Google searches for Silk Road prior to June 2011. that's when he stumbled on Albrecht's online posts where he pretended to be someone who happened to come across Silk Road Alfred noted the username Altoid.

He also noticed another post where Altoid asked for it help on the Bitcoin Forum that also included his personal email Ross Albrecht Gmail and after it is, go back and subpoena the records of these websites. someone with a username Altoid also posted on stack overflow with a question related to Tor. Soon after that user changed the Alias from Altoid to Frosty Alfred didn't know the significance of the name Frosty at the time, but what he did have was a real name. To track down, he Googled Ross Albrecht and came across the LinkedIn profile of a young man with rather cryptic life goals quote.

The most widespread in systemic use of force is amongst institutions and governments, so this is my current point of effort. Alfred Asked himself be the brains behind Silk Road Then came another piece of the puzzle in July 2013 U.S Customs and Border Protection Officers intercepted nine fake IDs coming into the U.S from Canada Homeland Security agents decided to pay a visit to the intended recipient. They showed up at 2260 15th Avenue in San Francisco the address for Ulbricht had been staying. He had moved out of the place he shared with his friend and into a sublet he found on Craigslist where he paid his rent in cash.

He took every precaution including adopting a fake identity his roommates knew him as Joshua Terry though he kept much of his backstory the same he said he was from Texas worked in I.T which is why he was always on his computer and had recently returned home from Australia which made not having a cell phone less suspicious. Joshua Kept himself and ate steak dinners for one. When the agents questioned them, they observed that he began visibly. Usually people make mistakes like all about like income and money and like this guy kind of played his cards right.

Nervous, he didn't admit to purchasing the fake IDs, let alone he bought them so he could rent additional servers to deal with Silk Road's growth as well as security issues. Prosecutors later claimed he prepared for a life on the Run including seeking citizenship on the island of Dominica Albrecht Volunteered to the agents who showed up at his door that hypothetically anyone could purchase anything they wanted on a site called Silk Road. The agents had never heard of Silk Road and were apparently unaware of any federal investigations, but they did document the incident. So an IRS agent Gary Alford ran another search on Ulbricht.

He found that Homeland Security file on the fake IDs or cemented his belief that they had the right guy. The pieces of the puzzle finally came together when Alfred got on the phone with the other agencies to see what they all had. Alfred mentioned the username Frosty that he had found on a forum that floored FBI Agent Tarbell who knew Frosty to be the name of the computer dread Pirate Roberts Used Bingo They knew Ross Elbricht was dread pirate Roberts In their pursuit of evidence, federal agents followed him everywhere. They also had a subpoena from Gmail and noticed that whenever Dread Pirate Roberts logged into Silk Road Albrecht was also signed into his Google account and whenever Dread Pirate Roberts logged out.

Albrecht also logged out of his Google account, but they knew this wouldn't be enough to nail him. They needed concrete evidence. Way more. They had to catch Ulbricht while his laptop was open and he was logged in on Silk Road as Dread Pirate Roberts An unlocked computer was also necessary so agents could access his files.

This would be difficult to pull off. Authorities knew their best bet was to catch him off guard him in a public place. Ah Homeland Security Agent Jared Duryegean was still pretending to be Silk Road staff member Cirrus and continued to maintain contact with Dread Pirate Roberts This communication was crucial to the plan they hatched on October 1st 2013 at 308 PM local time Duryegean saw Dread Pirate Roberts Log on Albrecht was sitting in the science fiction section of the San Francisco Public Libraries Glen Park Branch Durgian started up a conversation with Dread Pirate Roberts while posing as Cirrus hi, are you there hey, how are you doing I'm okay, you good. Can you check out one of the flagged messages for me? The flagged messages were in the main administrative section that only Dread Pirate Roberts could access.

Dread Pirate Roberts responded sure, let me log in. Okay, you did Bitcoin exchange before you started working for me, right? Pirate Roberts Asks this for security reasons because only the real Cirrus would know the answer. Luckily for authorities, the real series had told them how to answer the security question. Agent Dear Yagian hoped he recalled correctly when he typed yes, but just for a little bit.

it was a nerve-wracking moment. Not any more than that. No. I stopped because of reporting requirements.

Damn. Regulators eh, is that is that the password? Then, during all breakth, was now looking at an admin screen. He gave the signal to the other agents positioned in the library to make a move. A commotion soon broke out near Ulbricht.

A woman yelled you as the man next to her appeared like he was about to punch her. When Ulbrich turned around to see the fight, an agent swooped in and grabbed his open laptop. At that point Albrecht Quote lunges towards the laptop and another agent Walks Behind him Bear Hugs him arrested and taken away. The man and woman who were arguing were in fact undercover agents who created a distraction.

Albrecht's family and friends were shocked. How could the kind, fun loving man they knew be the same person who ran a Global Drug Bazaar They couldn't believe it. Albrecht was indicted on seven charges including: Distributing narcotics by means of the internet and engaging in a continuing criminal Enterprise He pleaded not guilty to all charges. Sometimes these things.

The trial began. It's kind of odd. Some of these things I Feel like they're kind of like a they're an idea. They're like a concept.

They're they're It's not something that only is one thing. it's a method. If it's not one thing, it'll be somebody. What? I'm just I'm just saying it.

It's a bit like, uh, like, like Pirate Bay right? Like it cannot really destroy the the you know it always going to exist somehow. some right to all charges. The trial began on January 13, 2015 and lasted three weeks. Many of Ultimate supporters showed up believing a guilty verdict would be a miscarriage of Justice Ulbrich's defense attorney argued he wasn't dread pirate Roberts that he had given away the handle and Silk Road to someone else, but the jury didn't buy it.

On February 5th 2015, a federal jury found Ross Ulbricht guilty on all seven counts. Before sentencing, Albrecht wrote a letter to the judge begging for a more lenient sentence. I've had my youth and I know you must take away my middle ears, but please leave me my old age. Please leave a small light at the end of the tunnel, an excuse to stay healthy, an excuse to dream of better days ahead and a chance to redeem myself in the Free World before I meet my maker on May 29, 2015 U.S District Judge Catherine B Forrest delivered her sentence.

You were the captain of the ship as the dread Pirate Roberts and you made your own laws and you enforce those laws in the manner that you saw fit. So it wasn't a world without restriction. It wasn't a world of ultimate freedom. it was a world of laws that you created.

They were your laws. It is fictional to think of Silk Road as some place of Freedom no drug dealer from the Bronx selling meth or heroin or crack has ever made these kinds of arguments to the court. It is a privileged argument. It is an argument from one of privilege.

You are no better a person than any other drug dealer and your education does not give you a special place of privilege. In our Criminal Justice System it makes it less explicable why you did what you did. There is no reason to make a choice between these two people that I see that are on display: the Ulbricht, who is the leader of the criminal Enterprise and the Ulbricht who is known in loved. What is clear is that people are very, very complex and you are one of them.

They are made up of many different qualities and many characteristics with no one quality defining them and there is good in you. Mr Albrecht I Have no doubt, but there is also bad and what you did in connection with Silk Road was terribly destructive to our social fabric. Mr Albrecht It is my judgment delivered here now on behalf of our country that on counts two and four, you were sentenced to a period of life imprisonment to run concurrently on count 5 you're sentenced to five years imprisonment to run concurrently. On count six, you were sentenced to 15 years imprisonment also concurrent.

and for money laundering in count seven, you are sentenced to 20 years also concurrent. Well, in the federal system, there was no parole and you shall serve your life in prison. This was far beyond what the prosecution had even asked for. Albrecht Had hoped Silk Road would become such a success that he would be famous.

According to a journal entry read by the prosecutor to the jury. Albrecht wrote I Imagine that someday I may have a story written about my life and it would be good to have a detailed account of it. His dream came true, but perhaps not in the way he had imagined. The FBI later identified Ulbrich's Mentor variety Jones as Roger Thomas Clark a Canadian Arrested in Thailand in 2015.

in 2020 Clark pled guilty in a Manhattan Court to conspiring to distribute massive quantities of Narcotics As for the two corrupt officers investigating Silk Road Former DEA Agent Carl Force was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for extortion, money laundering, and obstruction of justice. Former: Secret Service That that's some cringe I Don't give no when you are a police officer or somebody of of respect. Quote: Unquote in the government and you're working them, you should get absolutely clapped on because you know better, You know better and your job is to know better. to enforce better right.

You should be one. You're always gonna above it and to do the same or worse you should get snapped on. That's how it is because you're in a position of power and privilege over over everybody else, right? and you're using that to do the same thing or worse than the people who are in a position of power that they do. That's just that's just dude.

it's agent. Sean That's odd. Was sentenced to nearly six years in prison on charges of money laundering and obstruction of justice. He is later sentenced to an additional two years for another theft of Bitcoin from the US government.

Thanks for watching for news. Think I'm Cindy Palm That is odd. That is odd. Angel is the door.

It's pretty good. My soul. sometimes it feels just.