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US Shuts Illegal Drug Websites, Arrests Alleged Leader(Alliance News Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Los Angeles (Alliance News) - A San Francisco computer programmer charged with masterminding a major online illegal drug marketplace appeared in federal court Thursday, as authorities appeared to shut down at least two more drug sites in a coordinated operation. Blake Benthall, 26, was arrested Wednesday on conspiracy charges tied to drug trafficking, computer hacking, money laundering and trafficking in false IDs through his website Silk Road 2.0, the FBI said in a press release. Investigators found 100,000 dollars cash when they arrested him at his San Francisco home, assistant US Attorney Kathryn Haun said. She asked the court to hold him without bail, saying he was a "severe flight risk" because of his access to fake identification, local media reported. Prosecutors say the website was the resurrection of Silk Road, a "black market bazaar" in the style of eBay and Amazon that sold millions of dollars of drugs and other illegal items around the world before it was shut down by federal agents in October 2013. Silk Road 2.0 allegedly started up just a month after the original Silk Road website was dismantled. Authorities say Benthall, known on the site as Defcon, ran the site starting in December - the same month he reportedly started work as a software developer for private space startup SpaceX. But two months later he left the private space flight company that has a contract with NASA to fly cargo to the International Space Station. The FBI said in the last year Silk Road 2.0 has been used by thousands of drug dealers and other vendors to move hundreds of kilograms of illicit goods worldwide, and to launder millions of dollars of profits. The site listed more than 13,000 ads for illegal drugs including ecstasy, marijuana, heroin and cocaine, and hid users' identities by concealing IP addresses and requiring payment in the virtual currency Bitcoin. As of September 2014, the website had sales of 8 million dollars per month, and 150,000 active users, the FBI said. As part of the investigation, an undercover agent working for Homeland Security joined the website's support staff and gained access to areas of the site where he had direct contact with Benthall, according to the release. "Benthall should have known that those who hide behind the keyboard will ultimately be found," FBI assistant director-in-charge Geroge Venizelos said in the release. The investigation was conducted jointly by the FBI and the investigative arm of the Homeland Security Department, in collaboration with other US state and federal agencies and law enforcement authorities in France, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands and the UK. Two other suspects who investigators said were linked to internet drug sales were arrested and drugs and bitcoins were seized Thursday in an operation in Dublin, Irish media reported. US media outlets that follow the Deep Web - the internet's network of hidden websites - reported at least two more illegal drug sites, Hydra and Cloud 9, had also been shuttered. Both sites now show the same notice as Silk Road 2.0, a screen saying "The Hidden Site Has Been Seized," with FBI and Europol logos, according to Wired magazine. An FBI spokesperson told Wired the arrests in Ireland and that of Benthall were part of a "coordinated law enforcement action," though not the same case, and that the full extent of the shutdown operation would be revealed by Friday. The arrests and seizures appear to be part of Operation Onymous, an international law enforcement operation working to disrupt illegal commerce online, according to Wired. Copyright dpa |