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zepedamartin
I Use Mycotopia


Registered: 01/22/10
Posts: 184
Last seen: 2 months, 18 days
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Utah man pleads guilty to playing key role in online drug market
#19105914 - 11/08/13 02:16 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Link to story
A Spanish Fork man pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy charge Thursday for his role in an online black market known as the Silk Road that authorities say processed more than $1 billion worth of illicit business. The guilty plea from Curtis Clark Green, 47, comes one month after federal authorities shut down the drug-dealing website, which conducted business with tough-to-track digital currency and sought to protect the anonymity of its users by operating on an encrypted network.
Green, whose lawyer identified the defendant as being from Spanish Fork, Utah, declined to comment after the plea hearing. His attorney also declined comment. Dressed in a white shirt and tie, and gripping a cane as he entered the courtroom, Green answered standard 'yes' or 'no' questions from the judge but made no detailed statement about the allegations.
The website allowed users to anonymously browse through nearly 13,000 listings under categories like "Cannabis," "Psychedelics" and "Stimulants" before making purchases using Bitcoin, a form of online currency. It offered various illegal services along with drugs, and as of July, had nearly 1 million registered users from around the world, according to court papers.
A so-called hidden site, Silk Road used an online tool to mask the location of its servers and generated an estimated $1.2 billion since it started in 2011, authorities say.
It was shut down when authorities arrested Ross William Ulbricht, a college-educated San Francisco man they allege masterminded the operation while hiding behind the alias of "Dread Pirate Roberts," an apparent reference to a main character in "The Princess Bride," the 1987 comedy film based on a novel of the same name. He was arrested in a branch of San Francisco's public library, where authorities say he was chatting online with a cooperating witness. Ulbricht, 29, who is also charged in Maryland in a failed murder-for-hire plot, was ordered held after a court appearance this week in New York. His lawyer said that his client is innocent and is not the person who used the "Dread Pirate Roberts" alias.
The investigation was launched in 2011 in Baltimore, where agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations formed the "Marco Polo" task force - with representatives from other law enforcement agencies - to target Silk Road and its administrators. William Winter, the office's special agent in charge, said in a statement that his agents will continue to pursue crimes committed by users of "networks and digital currency designed to provide anonymity."
Green, who used the aliases of "Flush" and "chronicpain," acknowledged as part of his guilty plea that he served as an administrator for the website. The position gave him access to the details of financial transactions conducted through the black market bazaar and also made him responsible for fielding questions and complaints from buyers and sellers and determining whether law enforcement officials were secretly poking around the site, the authorities said.
Prosecutors say he also served as a middleman between a drug buyer who operated on Silk Road and an undercover agent who posed as a cocaine smuggler able to deal large quantities of the drug.
The agent contacted Ulbricht, who directed Green and other website administrators to find dealers willing to purchase a high volume of drugs, authorities say. Green admitted helping the undercover agent hook up with a particular buyer who was active on the site; the vendor and undercover agent negotiated a cocaine deal for roughly $27,000, and Green agreed to have the package sent to him, according to prosecutors.
He was arrested in January after the one-kilogram package was delivered to his house by an undercover U.S. Postal Service inspector.
He faces up to 40 years in prison at his sentencing in February.
His court appearance followed a similar plea Tuesday from Jacob George IV, an Edgewood, Md., man who admitted selling drugs via Silk Road.
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KingKnowledge
Around



Registered: 03/30/13
Posts: 2,876
Loc: East Coast
Last seen: 4 years, 6 months
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Re: Utah man pleads guilty to playing key role in online drug market [Re: zepedamartin]
#19105922 - 11/08/13 02:19 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Flush and chronicpain.
I'm not a SR user, but I imagine these names had to have been pretty well-known on the site. Any users care to comment?
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B_BOY
Phuck Ewe



Registered: 07/17/11
Posts: 2,819
Loc: O
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Re: Utah man pleads guilty to playing key role in online drug market [Re: KingKnowledge]
#19105942 - 11/08/13 02:24 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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I just hope members here use some common sense and stay away from the 2.0 version. If this man was an admin, then he no doubt gave up key information to help track others.
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Repertoire89
Cat



Registered: 11/15/12
Posts: 21,773
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Re: Utah man pleads guilty to playing key role in online drug market [Re: B_BOY]
#19106555 - 11/08/13 04:30 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
B_BOY said: I just hope members here use some common sense and stay away from the 2.0 version. If this man was an admin, then he no doubt gave up key information to help track others.
Don't just up and call someone a snitch man, granted neither of them should have been in the US.
I'd stay away from the 2.0 version though
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stonezy
Stonezy



Registered: 06/05/12
Posts: 87
Last seen: 2 years, 1 month
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Re: Utah man pleads guilty to playing key role in online drug market [Re: Repertoire89]
#19107943 - 11/08/13 09:40 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Nice, go Utah. Shitty for Mr.green tho
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orison
mcfluffysugarnuts


Registered: 01/19/09
Posts: 5,468
Last seen: 24 days, 12 hours
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Re: Utah man pleads guilty to playing key role in online drug market [Re: stonezy]
#19112167 - 11/09/13 09:17 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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Hammburgler
Stranger


Registered: 08/13/13
Posts: 81
Last seen: 9 years, 5 months
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Re: Utah man pleads guilty to playing key role in online drug market [Re: orison]
#19112456 - 11/09/13 10:23 PM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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pretty sad someone can go to prison for 40 yrs for that.
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LoveYourLife
MDMA


Registered: 08/05/09
Posts: 2,076
Loc: Cincinnati
Last seen: 9 years, 6 months
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Re: Utah man pleads guilty to playing key role in online drug market [Re: Hammburgler]
#19112808 - 11/10/13 12:09 AM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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If that dude got 40 years, just imagine what Ross Ulbricht is going to get.
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Lucky7s
X-Ray lens
Registered: 01/15/04
Posts: 23
Last seen: 2 years, 9 months
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Re: Utah man pleads guilty to playing key role in online drug market [Re: LoveYourLife]
#19113810 - 11/10/13 09:00 AM (10 years, 2 months ago) |
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I've been watching this case out of curiosity.
Forget even thinking about breaking the law in the police state we live in. Nothing is anonymous anymore. Who knows if they even got the right guy and who cares. I used to say F the police. Now I say F jail. (btw lil-wayne says the same thing now in one of his songs)
Focus on changing the laws. I say legalize shrooms. I also say we shouldn't be taxed to death. I also say we need to end the federal reserve. We need a new paradigm of money, power, and liberties. Forget indoctrination, guilt, intimidation, and fear. It is time to fight for our rights by changing the laws.
Keepin' it 100% legal.
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