The internet is increasingly creating a way of life for many people. Websites and mobile apps are developed everyday and companies are taking advantage of them. Drug barons are also using websites to carryout their business. Last week, a suspect at illegal drug website was arrested.
The 54 year old was involved in the business with world’s notorious drug peddler Ross Ulbricht of Silk Road. “The Silkroad is an underground marketplace that is also known as the Amazon or eBay of drugs. It all started back in 2011 by someone who goes by the name of Dread Pirate Roberts who is fairly vocal in the opposition to the US drug policy. The name Silk Road comes from the ancient network of trade routes though places like Europe, India and China where various goods where traded such as Silk and spices to name a few.” Silk road wrote.
“70% of the Silk road marketplace is dedicated to that sale of drugs such as Marijuana and Cocaine while there are various other categories and also a lot of legal products like computer equipment and books etc.” The site added.
The US Department of Justice said Friday that Roger Thomas Clark, aka Variety Jones, had been apprehended Thursday and is awaiting extradition to the United States. The guy helped the notorious peddler, Ulbricht, who was sentenced earlier this year. Clark did everything to keep him out of the hands of police to creating rules for Silk Road’s users to strengthening the site’s technical infrastructure.
The 54 year old worked as an adviser and confidante and together with Ulbricht facilitated an anonymous global black market for all things illegal,” James Gibbons, an agent with the Department of Homeland Security, was quoted as saying in a statement from the Justice Department. The police are now building a strong case for the suspect at illegal drug website.
CNET reports that, the illegal market place is characterized by law enforcement as the most extensive criminal bazaar on the Internet, relied on technologies that would supposedly hide the identities of its users and creators. The site was used by thousands of drug dealers and others to sell hundreds of kilograms of drugs and other contraband and to launder hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues, the Justice Department said in its statement.
Many people gained from the site and Clark was one of the beneficiaries. The illegal trade is international and drug peddlers are switching to work as advisers and contributors. Clark has been charged with one count of narcotics conspiracy, with a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum sentence of life, and with one count of money laundering conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.
