Silk Road

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  Silk Road was (and maybe still is) the largest drug site on the darknet. The site was closed and opened 3 times, and there isn't certain proof that it isn't working anymore.

  The backstory is quite simple. The site was founded back in february 2011, which was operated by the pseudonymous "Dread Pirates Roberts". Two other individuals were involved closely with this site, known as Variety Jones and Smedley.

  In june 2011, there was an article about the site, which made a lot of buzz, increasing the visits on the site. Senator Charles Schumer ordered the federal enforcement to shut the site down, especially to the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) and DOJ (Department of Justice).

  In may 2013, the site was taken down for a short period of time, because of a DDoS attack. In june, the FBI reported that they found the real IP address of the Silk Road server, because of a leak and it was located in Iceland.

  The creator of the site, Ross Ulbricht was arrested on 23 october 2013. He was charged with money laundering, computer hacking, conspiracy to traffic narcotics and attempting to kill 6 people, but since none of those people died, Ulbricht wasn't prosecuted for any alleged murder attempts.

  The FBI initially seized 26,000 bitcoins from accounts on Silk Road, worth approximately $3.6 million at the time. Another 144,342 bitcoins were kept which had been found on Ulbricht's computer, roughly $87 million.

  Ulbricht's trial began on 13 January 2015. At the start of the trial, Ulbricht admitted to founding the Silk Road website, but claimed to have transferred control of the site to other people soon after he founded it. Ulbricht's lawyers contended that Dread Pirate Roberts was really Mark Karpelès, and that Karpelès set up Ulbricht as a fall guy. 

  The story goes on and forth, a fight between the jury and Ulbricht, but the point is he got life imprisonment, without the possibility of parole.

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