Slashdot Mirror
Irish Court Orders Alleged Silk Road Admin To Be Extradited To US (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A 27-year-old Irishman who American prosecutors believe was a top administrator on Silk Road named "Libertas" has been approved for extradition to the United States. According to the Irish Times, a High Court judge ordered Gary Davis to be handed over to American authorities on Friday. In December 2013, federal prosecutors in New York unveiled charges against Davis and two other Silk Road staffers, Andrew Michael Jones ("Inigo") and Peter Phillip Nash ("Samesamebutdifferent"). They were all charged with narcotics trafficking conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy. After a few years of operation, Silk Road itself was shuttered when its creator, Ross Ulbricht, was arrested in San Francisco in October 2013. Ulbricht was convicted at a high-profile trial and was sentenced to life in prison in May 2015.
By moving the drug trade online, and away from street corners and school yards, SR was certainly reducing harm for the public, but it was also a challenge to the police state, the prison industry, and the politicians that service them. Crime in America is a fraction of what it was 25 years ago, yet we have more police, and more prison inmates than ever*. The public needs to wake up and realize what is happening. We need to vote for drug legalization, and we need to stop voting for the pro-police candidates. This November, look for the candidates that are endorsed by the police/prison-guard unions, and please vote for someone else.
*No, the prison expansion did not "cause" the decline in crime. The fall in crime was well underway before the prison buildout started. Some states expanded prisons far more than others, yet had no greater fall in crime. The fall in crime happened throughout the developed world, yet only America had a prison expansion craze.