Deep-web Silk Road market taken down; 'Dread Pirate Roberts' under arrest -- charged with murder-for-hire

For two and a half years, Silk Road was the Deep Web’s worst keep secret. The underground site was infamous for drug trafficking, gun running and murder for hire – a veritable rogues gallery for underground dealers. Since launching in 2011, the site generated over $1.2 billion in revenue and $79.8 million in commissions. It was one of the not-so-secret successes of the underground web.

The site was taken offline today and the founder, Ross William Ulbricht, a/k/a “Dread Pirate Roberts”, charged with one count each of narcotics trafficking conspiracy, soliciting murder, computer hacking conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, according to a court filing. It is the end of a strange era in computer security when one man and a team of salesmen, programmers, and cryptographers kept the government at bay for two solid years.

Perhaps most chilling was the evidence of murder for hire. Ulbricht himself requested murders and allegedly paid for them using Bitcoin – one murder cost a little under 2,000 BTC. Special Agent Tarbell alleges that Ulbricht himself used the service at least once to protect his interest in Silk Road.