Silk Road Shut Down, Founder Arrested, $3.6 Million Worth of Bitcoin Seized

New submitter u38cg writes Ross William Ulbricht, known as 'Dread Pirate Roberts,' was arrested in San Francisco yesterday and has been charged with one count each of narcotics trafficking conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy, according to a court filing. Silk Road has been shut down and some $3.6m in Bitcoin (26,000 Btc) seized. The question is — how?" onyxruby submitted a link to the criminal complaint (PDF; coral cache might work better). The court filing indicates that they seized the actual servers and recovered their contents, making numerous references to the private messaging system. Also according to the court filing, the Silk Road was used to sell ~$1.2 billion in illicit goods since being founded in 2011.

Comments

Re:Tor compromised

[Bulge Temptingly]

Nope, apparently Canadian authorities turned up some fake ID in a routine postal search.

Re:Tor compromised

[Anonymous Coward]

it appears that agents found Ulbricht after Canadian border authorities routinely checked a package intended for his San Francisco home and discovered nine fake identification cards within, which Ulbricht allegedly was seeking to obtain to rent more servers to power Silk Road as it massively expanded.

source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2013/10/02/feds-shut-down-silk-road-owner-known-as-dread-pirate-roberts-arrested/

Re:Tor compromised

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope.
http://krebsonsecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/UlbrichtCriminalComplaint.pdf
TLDR version:
A user named altoids advertised SR on various forums very early on.
Later the same user wanted some dev work done, used a gmail address as contact.
Same gmail address leads to a LinkedIn profile ... and a name and address.
Seize that dudes computers.
Find keys to the kingdom for the SR servers.

Re:Tor compromised

[root_brewski]

From Forbes: "Agents found Ulbricht after Canadian border authorities routinely checked a package intended for his San Francisco home and discovered nine fake identification cards within, which Ulbricht allegedly was seeking to obtain to rent more servers to power Silk Road as it massively expanded." Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2013/10/02/feds-shut-down-silk-road-owner-known-as-dread-pirate-roberts-arrested/

Re:Tor compromised

[Beardo the Bearded]

It's not a "lucky coincidence". I'm Canadian and I buy some stuff online. Here's why they tend to open packages:

1. Canadian Border Services gets $5 for every package they open. (I call this the "putting their dick in it" fee.) You can not appeal this fee.
2. As you have more stuff sent to you, they tend to open more of your packages. My ex-wife ordered lots of stuff online (mostly knitting supplies) and towards the end of her interest in her hobby, they were opening 90% of her packages. Mine were rarely opened.
3. They get a little more openy when you're doing your own brokerage. FedEx and UPS charge about $40 for brokerage, so some people do it themselves for $10. This requires you to go down to the border (or quasi-border), which in my city is the airport.

So it wasn't a tip-off, it was just CBS looking for extra cash.