Hydra, Cloud 9 and Silk Road 2.0, the online drug bazaars that catered to a worldwide audience have been shut down by a combined force of the FBI, Europol and Homeland Security.
"These markets are very specialised and could deliver anywhere including India. Users worldwide use open source tools used by whistleblowers and activists and are designed to be extremely secure. The market itself runs on Tor, which is one of the strongest methods of anonymity possible online which redirects traffic through a free, worldwide, volunteer network consisting of more than five thousand relays. When the package is shipped to India for instance, because of the way these packages are shipped there is no way to prove what their source is as multiple different methods of shipping and the use of sophisticated packaging techniques is involved. The drugs are also well camouflaged for example MDMA or cocaine is put into capsules to make them seem like prescription drugs. In such a case that what you order has been caught by Indian customs there is no way to link that package to you besides the drop address. If you have used updated anonymity tools that are updated to their latest versions there are almost no digital traces left behind. There is a reason why they generated sales of $8 million per month and had approximately 150,000 active users" said a source that wished to remain anonymous.
The FBI has not been resting since they busted Silk Road, the original drug bazaar of the deep web in November 2013 and have finally caught the man behind Silk Road 2.0 the dark net website that took it's predecessor's place five weeks after they shut down the original Silk Road. The accused Blake Benthall aka Defcon was arrested yesterday in San Francisco, California who faces life imprisonment for charges including but not limited to - narcotics trafficking, computer hacking, conspiring to traffic in fraudulent identification documents and money laundering.
Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said, "As alleged, Blake Benthall attempted to resurrect Silk Road, a secret website that law enforcement seized last year, by running Silk Road 2.0, a nearly identical criminal enterprise. Let's be clear—this Silk Road, in whatever form, is the road to prison. 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."
FBI assistant director-in-charge George Venizelos said, "It's been more than a year since the FBI made an arrest of the administrator of the black-market bazaar, Silk Road, and here we stand again, announcing the arrest of the creator and operator of Silk Road 2.0. Following a very close business model to the first, as alleged, Benthall ran a website on the Tor network facilitating supposedly anonymous deals of drugs and illegal services generating millions of dollars in monthly sales. The FBI worked with law enforcement partners here and abroad on this case and will continue to investigate and bring to prosecution those who seek to run similar black markets online."
HSI Executive Associate Director Peter Edge said, "Blake Benthall's arrest ends his status as the alleged administrator of a website that allows illicit black-market activities to evolve and expand, and provides a safe haven for illegal vices. HSI will continue to work in partnership with its federal and international law enforcement partners around the world to hold criminals who use anonymous Internet software for illegal activities who seek to hide behind the anonymity of the Internet to carry out illegal activities accountable for their actions."
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