- Oct 23, 2012
- 12,527
A 26-years-old man by the name of Blake Benthall has been arrested by law enforcement in connection with ownership of Silk Road 2.0, an illegal marketplace operating under the anonymity of Tor network.
The market was considered the largest among its competitors on the Darknet, offering a wide selection of drugs along with malicious software and services intended for computer hacking (infostealers, keyloggers, remote access tools) and fake documents.
Illegal trade generated millions of dollars every month
Benthall, known by the online alias “Defcon,” is believed to have set up Silk Road 2.0 in order to resurrect the original black-market bazaar with the same name that was seized by the authorities last year.
“Those looking to follow in the footsteps of alleged cybercriminals should understand that we will return as many times as necessary to shut down noxious online criminal bazaars. We don’t get tired,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in a communication from the US Department of Justice.
According to FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos, the illicit business was very profitable, generating millions of US dollars in sales on a monthly basis. It is alleged that the 150,000 active users of Silk Road 2.0 generated a money flow of at least $8 / €6.45 million, and the operators earned at least $400,000 / €323,000 in commissions; all transactions were made in digital currency in order to preserve anonymity.
Websites of other black-market bazaars have been seized
The authorities believe that Benthall owned and operated the illegal website since December 2013, turning it into one of the largest online locations for exchanging unlawful goods on the web.
The marketplace emerged just five weeks after the owner of its previous version, Ross William Ulbricht (known as “Dread Pirate Roberts”), was arrested in November 2013.
On October 17, 2014, the website’s listings included 1,783 entries for psychedelics, 1,697 for Ecstasy, 1,707 for cannabis, and 379 for opioids.
Silk Road 2.0 has been taken down by the authorities, together with other Darknet marketplaces, including Cloud 9, Hydra, Pandora, Blue Sky, Topix, Flugsvamp, Cannabis Road, and Black Market. Many of these are smaller markets or relatively new ones established inside Tor.
Bringing down the sites is part of an operation law enforcement organizations dubbed “Onymous.” The full scope of the action was to remove underground platforms that facilitated the trade of illegal goods.
Law enforcement operation was a joint, global effort
A total of 17 individuals have been arrested in connection with administering the black markets and more than 410 .onion domains (addresses for websites accessed through Tor) have been closed, according to information from EC3 (Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre).
During Operation Onymous, through its cybercrime fighting units, Europol coordinated the activity of law enforcement agencies in 16 European countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Blake Benthall is facing multiple conspiracy charges, which include narcotics trafficking (mandatory 10 years of jail time, maximum sentence: life in prison), computer hacking (maximum sentence: 5 years in prison), trafficking fraudulent documents (maximum sentence: 15 years in jail) and money laundering (maximum sentence: 20 years in jail). However, any sentence is to be determined by the judge.
The full complaint against Benthall contains interesting pieces of information about Silk Road 2.0 activity and the administrator's involvement in the enterprise.
The market was considered the largest among its competitors on the Darknet, offering a wide selection of drugs along with malicious software and services intended for computer hacking (infostealers, keyloggers, remote access tools) and fake documents.
Illegal trade generated millions of dollars every month
Benthall, known by the online alias “Defcon,” is believed to have set up Silk Road 2.0 in order to resurrect the original black-market bazaar with the same name that was seized by the authorities last year.
“Those looking to follow in the footsteps of alleged cybercriminals should understand that we will return as many times as necessary to shut down noxious online criminal bazaars. We don’t get tired,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in a communication from the US Department of Justice.
According to FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos, the illicit business was very profitable, generating millions of US dollars in sales on a monthly basis. It is alleged that the 150,000 active users of Silk Road 2.0 generated a money flow of at least $8 / €6.45 million, and the operators earned at least $400,000 / €323,000 in commissions; all transactions were made in digital currency in order to preserve anonymity.
Websites of other black-market bazaars have been seized
The authorities believe that Benthall owned and operated the illegal website since December 2013, turning it into one of the largest online locations for exchanging unlawful goods on the web.
The marketplace emerged just five weeks after the owner of its previous version, Ross William Ulbricht (known as “Dread Pirate Roberts”), was arrested in November 2013.
On October 17, 2014, the website’s listings included 1,783 entries for psychedelics, 1,697 for Ecstasy, 1,707 for cannabis, and 379 for opioids.
Silk Road 2.0 has been taken down by the authorities, together with other Darknet marketplaces, including Cloud 9, Hydra, Pandora, Blue Sky, Topix, Flugsvamp, Cannabis Road, and Black Market. Many of these are smaller markets or relatively new ones established inside Tor.
Bringing down the sites is part of an operation law enforcement organizations dubbed “Onymous.” The full scope of the action was to remove underground platforms that facilitated the trade of illegal goods.
Law enforcement operation was a joint, global effort
A total of 17 individuals have been arrested in connection with administering the black markets and more than 410 .onion domains (addresses for websites accessed through Tor) have been closed, according to information from EC3 (Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre).
During Operation Onymous, through its cybercrime fighting units, Europol coordinated the activity of law enforcement agencies in 16 European countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Blake Benthall is facing multiple conspiracy charges, which include narcotics trafficking (mandatory 10 years of jail time, maximum sentence: life in prison), computer hacking (maximum sentence: 5 years in prison), trafficking fraudulent documents (maximum sentence: 15 years in jail) and money laundering (maximum sentence: 20 years in jail). However, any sentence is to be determined by the judge.
The full complaint against Benthall contains interesting pieces of information about Silk Road 2.0 activity and the administrator's involvement in the enterprise.
