Silk Road ...

[Michael Scally MD]

Libertarian Dream? A Site Where You Buy Drugs With Digital Dollars
Libertarian Dream? A Site Where You Buy Drugs With Digital Dollars - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

Silk Road is a peer-to-peer commerce website like eBay, with a few important differences: it's only accessible through the anonymous network Tor, purchases can only be made with the digital currency Bitcoin, and much of the trade is in drugs.

The Underground Website Where You Can Buy Any Drug Imaginable
http://gawker.com/5805928/the-underground-website-where-you-can-buy-any-drug-imaginable

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.

 

[Millard]

Re: Tor (anonymity network) & Silk Road

Peer-to-peer currency Bitcoin sidesteps financial institutions

In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto wrote a proposal titled: "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" (PDF) which attempted to address all of those factors. It outlined a way of using a distributed database spread across the nodes of a peer-to-peer network to keep track of transactions, using cryptography to provide security -- preventing the double-spend problem, where a user is able to spend the same tokens twice.

That proposal was turned into reality, with the help of Gavin Andresen, and since February 2009 it's been possible to use Bitcoins in a number of different ways. Bitcoins can be saved on a personal computer in a wallet file, or stored on the web in a third-party wallet service. On the one hand, that means that you're not holding onto it yourself; on the other, it means that it's safe if your hard drive fails.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-05/16/bitcoin-p2p-currency

"Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" (PDF)

 

[Samue]

Re: Tor (anonymity network) & Silk Road

Don't screw around over on those websites. You will eithier

A) See things that will disturb you for the rest of your life
B?Have the FBI show up at your front door

The deep web is not a good thing to screw around with!

 

[Millard]

Re: Tor (anonymity network) & Silk Road

Senators ask Justice Dept. to shut down online drug market

Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.) are asking the Justice Department to shut down an online market where users can purchase illegal and prescription drugs anonymously.

The pair wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder and Drug Enforcement Administration administrator Michele Leonhart over the weekend asking them to shut down the "Silk Road" website, which launched in February.

“By allowing users to buy and sell illegal drugs online, the website ‘Silk Road’ is nothing less than a one-stop shop for drugs that needs to be shut down immediately,” Schumer said. “Never before has a website so brazenly peddled illegal drugs online, but by cracking down on the website immediately, we can help stop these drugs from flooding our streets.”

Senators ask Justice Dept. to shut down online drug market - The Hill's Hillicon Valley

 

[solo47]

Re: Tor (anonymity network) & Silk Road

This sounds like a private club I would want to join!

Solo

 

[Millard]

Re: Tor (anonymity network) & Silk Road

This sounds like a private club I would want to join!

Solo

The article said "any drug imaginable" but I don't think there is a wide selection of anabolic steroids available. The steroid-using bodybuilding geek market is still pretty small.

 

[JonnySak]

Re: Tor (anonymity network) & Silk Road

The site only had two or three sellers of steriods/peptides and the prices were beyond absurd.

 

[Get Some]

Re: Tor (anonymity network) & Silk Road

The site only had two or three sellers of steriods/peptides and the prices were beyond absurd.

Because outside our "bubble" on these boards, people have no idea what stuff should really cost. If sources around these parts were smart they'd setup a network like that.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Re: Tor (anonymity network) & Silk Road

The bursting of the Bitcoin bubble
Virtual currencies: The bursting of the Bitcoin bubble | The Economist

BITCOIN, briefly the world’s favorite cryptocurrency, is in trouble. It plummeted from a peak of around $33 per unit in June to just $2.51. In May Rick Falkvinge, the founder of the Pirate Party in Sweden, famously blogged that he was converting all of his Swedish-crown savings to Bitcoins. Five months on, he tweeted that after “hoarding” Bitcoins until they hit $18 or so, he had moved to a “buy-and-sell pattern”. Mostly sell, it seems. “I currently don't hold any,” he admitted.

 

[Millard]

Re: Tor (anonymity network) & Silk Road

Because outside our "bubble" on these boards, people have no idea what stuff should really cost. If sources around these parts were smart they'd setup a network like that.

I wonder why the steroid community tends to be behind the potheads, etc on technologically-savvy set ups like this.

Maybe it's because anabolic steroids aren't a recreational drug generally used by tech geeks; they have other drugs of choice. They set up networks for their own benefit.

The weak link by steroid sources traditionally used by the bodybuilding community on these forums is email. The so-called encrypted email services only provide an illusory sense of security and anonymity. Can you imagine all of the steroid transaction data that has fallen in the hands of prosecutors but never acted upon? In a post-Patriot Act environment where steroid users can be treated like terrorists, it is easy for the government to gain access to emails.

Tor + Silk Road removes the risks of email not to mention making it difficult to follow the money flow.

There is a good reason that drug warriors in law enforcement fear this network.

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Re: Tor (anonymity network) & Silk Road

They ARE watching!

Creators And Operators Of On-Line Narcotics Marketplace On The TOR Network Arrested On First Of Its Kind Federal Indictment Charging Drug Trafficking In 34 Countries And 50 States
http://www.justice.gov/usao/cac/Pressroom/2012/045.html

LOS ANGELES - Federal, state, and international law enforcement authorities have arrested eight people who all face federal drug trafficking and money laundering charges stemming from their creation and operation of a secret online narcotics market place – known as the “The Farmer's Market” – which sold a variety of controlled substances to approximately 3,000 customers in 50 states and 24 countries.

This morning, law enforcement authorities in Lelystad, Netherlands, this morning arrested the lead defendant, Marc Willems, at his home. Yesterday, law enforcement officials in Bogota, Colombia, arrested the second defendant, Michael Evron, a U.S. citizen who lives in Argentina, as he was attempting to leave Colombia. The remaining defendants, Jonathan Colbeck, Brian Colbeck, Ryan Rawls, Jonathan Dugan, George Matzek and Charles Bigras were arrested at their respective homes in Iowa, Michigan, Georgia, New York, New Jersey and Florida.

The 66-page indictment, which was unsealed today, was the result of “Operation Adam Bomb,” a two-year investigation led by agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) Los Angeles Field Division, with significant assistance by the Netherlands Regional Police Force Flevoland, prosecutors from the International Legal Assistance Center North East Netherlands, U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, the DEA’s country office in Hague, and the U.S. Postal Service. The arrests of the defendants took place due to the cooperation and assistance of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, the Colombian Central Directorate of the Judicial Police and Intelligence, Migracion Colombia, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and federal/state/local authorities in New York, Iowa, Georgia, Florida, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Jersey.

“The drug trafficking organization targeted in Operation Adam Bomb was distributing dangerous and addictive drugs to every corner of the world, and trying to hide their activities through the use of advanced anonymizing on-line technology,” said Briane M. Grey, DEA Acting Special Agent in Charge. “Today's action should send a clear message to organizations that are using technology to conduct criminal activity that the DEA and our law enforcement partners will track them down and bring them to justice.”

“Illegal narcotics trafficking now reaches every corner of our world, including our home computers,” said U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California André Birotte Jr., whose office is handling the prosecution of the case. “But the reach of the law is just as long, and the Department of Justice will work with its partners, both nationally and internationally, to bring narcotics traffickers to justice, wherever they may hide. Working together, we want to make the Internet a safe and secure marketplace by rooting out and prosecuting those persons who seek to illegally pervert and exploit that market.”

The 12-count indictment charges that each of the defendants was a member of a conspiracy to distribute a variety of controlled substances worldwide through the use of online marketplaces that allowed independent sources of supply to anonymously advertise illegal drugs for sale to the public. According to the indictment, the operators of the online marketplaces provided a controlled substances storefront, order forms, online forums, customer service, and payment methods for the different sources of supply. For customers, the operators screened all sources of supply and guaranteed delivery of the illegal drugs. The online marketplaces handled all communications between the sources of supply and customers. For these services, the operators charged a commission based upon the value of the order. Customers of the on-line marketplaces have been identified in every U.S. state and the District of Columbia and in approximately 34 other countries. There were thousands of registered users of the online marketplaces. The on-line marketplaces have multiple sources of supply offering various controlled substances, including lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), MDMA (ecstasy), fentanyl, mescaline, ketamine, DMT and high-end marijuana. Between January 2007 and October 2009 alone, defendants Willems and Evron processed approximately 5,256 online orders for controlled substances valued at approximately $1,041,244 via the online controlled substances marketplaces.

As alleged in the indictment, the “Farmers Market”, previously known as “Adamflowers”, operated on the TOR network. According to the indictment, TOR is a circuit of encrypted connections through relays on the TOR network that can be downloaded on home computers. TOR allows websites and electronic mail communications to mask IP address information by spreading communications over a series of computers, or relays, located throughout the world. The online marketplaces have accepted Western Union, Pecunix, PayPal, I-Golder, and cash as payment for illegal drug sales.

According to investigators, this drug trafficking organization (DTO) attempted to operate online in secrecy, utilizing the TOR network, IP anonymizers, and covert currency transactions; but investigators were able to infiltrate the DTO and its technology during the course of the investigation.

Those arrested were:

• Marc Willems, 42, a Dutch citizen living in Lelystad, Netherlands
• Michael Evron, 42, a U.S. citizen living in Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Jonathan Colbeck, 51, of Urbana, Iowa
• Brian Colbeck, 47, of Coldwater, Mich.
• Ryan Rawls, 31, of Alpharetta, Ga.
• Jonathan Dugan, 27, of North Babylon, N.Y.
• George Matzek, 20, of Secaucus, N.J.
• Charles Bigras, 37, of Melbourne, Fla.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in court.

Each of the defendants is charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, which carries a maximum sentence of imprisonment for life, and money laundering conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment. Defendants Willems, Evron, Jonathan Colbeck, Brian Colbeck, and Rawls are also charged with the distribution of LSD, which carries a maximum sentence of imprisonment for life. Finally, defendants Willems and Evron are charged with participating in a continuing criminal enterprise, which carries a maximum sentence of imprisonment for life and a 20-year mandatory minimum sentence.

In addition to those named in the indictment, authorities arrested seven other people this morning (two in the Netherlands, one in Atlanta, two in New Hampshire, one in Pennsylvania and one in New Jersey). During the course of the arrests made in this case, federal agents and local law enforcement officers also seized substances identified as hashish, LSD and MDMA, as well as an indoor psychotropic mushroom grow, and three indoor marijuana grows.

 

[JonnySak]

They got busted by using clearnet email and payment options other than bitcoin. Try doing that as a buyer or vendor on SilkRoad and you'll get blackballed.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Millard]

Re: Tor (anonymity network) & Silk Road

They got busted by using clearnet email and payment options other than bitcoin. Try doing that as a buyer or vendor on SilkRoad and you'll get blackballed.

The security practices on SilkRoad put to shame those used by steroid sources. Why haven't more sources gone this route?

 

[JonnySak]

Ive been planning on writting up a guide for here on how to use public/private keys and tor for email access. That guarantees both private and anonamous communications. Those hushmail or hidemyass services are absolutely worthless.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[JonnySak]

I emailed a source from IM and asked if he had a public key for encryption, he responded "this is encrypted right now" as his reply sat in my inbox completely unecrypted. He was relying on one of those secure emails.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Re: Tor (anonymity network) & Silk Road

Bitcoin-FBI
Bitcoin-FBI

 

[whitegato777]

Re: Tor (anonymity network) & Silk Road

If they used the most high tech methods then how were they traced? They had to screw up somewhere. Some of those e-gold places are in panama and out of us control. They had to have been hit by spywear or something.

 

[leoclaw79]

Re: Tor (anonymity network) & Silk Road

What a shame.... Especially since most of these "narcotics" have less risk than alcohol...

 

[leoclaw79]

Re: Tor (anonymity network) & Silk Road

Nowhere do i see that they provided cocaine or heroin so whats the issue lol

 

[Michael Scally MD]

Re: Tor (anonymity network) & Silk Road

Virtual cash exchange becomes bank
BBC News - Virtual cash exchange becomes bank

A currency exchange that specialises in virtual cash has won the right to operate as a bank.

Bitcoin-Central got the go-ahead thanks to a deal with French financial firms Aqoba and Credit Mutuel.

The exchange is one of many that swaps bitcoins, computer generated cash, for real world currencies.

The change in status makes it easier to use bitcoins and bestows national protections on balances held at the exchange.