Two Years After Silk Road's Fall, Darknet Drug Markets Thrive
Two years after the FBI shut down Silk Road, online drug markets are alive and growing, thanks to the Tor browser and virtual currency, reports US News & World Report. Darknet markets offer greater product reliability and less risk of violence than physical encounters with drug dealers. Darknets average $300,000 to $500,000 in sales per day according to one study. Johns Hopkins University computer science professor Matthew Green says Silk Road provided a proof of concept for darknet markets. He says it's an idea that someone doesn't think about until it happens. Some Silk Road successors....
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The alleged leader of a darknet drug trafficking group has been extradited from Romania to Denver, to face multiple criminal charges. The alleged leader of the drug ring is suspected to be the brains behind the darknet vendor “ItalianMafiaBrussels”. Filip Lucian Simion, a 23-year-old man was extradited from Romania to Denver, Colorado to face charges of drug trafficking and money laundering, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. Simion was arrested along with nine other defendants during a joint U.S./European law enforcement operation in the early hours of May 3, 2016. Simultaneous....
A proliferation of illegal activities admittedly took place on darknet Silk Road marketplace. Very quickly, politicians like Charles Schumer took aim at the Silk Road. Brought down in 2013 by law enforcement, the Silk Road did put an idea into society that is likely here to stay; distributed e-commerce, anonymous and peer-reviewed as can be through the use of digital currency. At its heart: Bitcoin. A digital currency founded in 2008 by an unknown developer, who goes by the name Satoshi Nakamoto, that allows for pseudonymous transactions. Ross Ulbricht, convicted Silk Road founder,....
FBI Takes Down Silk Road. Last month, the FBI took down the online drug marketplace known as Silk Road. However much like a hydra, a new online marketplace has reared its head called Evolution Marketplace, and it is enjoying explosive growth in its offer of drugs and other illegal items. A statement from the Digital Citizens Alliance shows that though the FBI action in taking down websites did have the effect of slowing down the darknet, new sites have nonetheless emerged in the interim. The latest Darknet site, Evolution significantly ups the stakes. Digital Citizens Alliance Research....
Microsoft and the U.S. government are in an ongoing battle over an Irishman allegedly involved in Silk Road wanted by the FBI on darknet drug charges, as reported by Deep Dot Web. The 27-year-old Irishman, Gary Davis, from Wicklow, is currently fighting an extradition case led by the FBI so that he can avoid facing charges for his alleged involvement in Silk Road, the illegal online marketplace. Mr Davis is alleged to have been an administrator on the website using the name ‘Libertas’ when the FBI shut it down in 2013. Silk Road was an online marketplace that worked on the darknet offering....
A new study argues that online black marketplaces, such as the infamous Silk Road, can actually reduce the number of drug related-violent crimes. The researchers' argument is simple: online drug traffickers act more like wholesalers, and since online markets limit the scope of direct interaction between the traffickers - blurring or removing territorial boundaries, there is less of a chance for violent confrontation. The research was conducted by University of Lausanne criminologist David Décary-Hétu and University of Manchester law professor Judith Aldridge. Entitled "Not an 'Ebay for....