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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.

31 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. So no more soveriegn countries then ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is a complete disgrace. This is an Irish citizen. If he's committed a crime on Irish soil he should be tried in and Irish court under Irish law.

    The idea that countries, mainly America, can now extradite people all over the world sticks two fingers up at the idea of sovereign states.

    What's next ? An American being sent to face the death penalty because there's a video of them dropping some chewing gum on the streets of Singapore ?

    1. Re:So no more soveriegn countries then ? by DrXym · · Score: 1
      The main test of extradition in Ireland is whether the charges are reciprocal, i.e would Ireland seek to extradite and charge a person if they were abroad and an offence had been committed in Ireland. It doesn't matter if they were physically present in Ireland when the offence was made. A simple example would be someone ringing up and making a credible threat to murder somebody. I'm sure the US feels the same way, especially for cyber crime, wirefraud etc.

      This isn't the first time extradition has been asked for. A scumbag called Eric Eoin Marques is fighting extradition to the US for running one of the world's largest darknets for kiddie porn. That particular extradition is still ongoing AFAIK on appeal but apparently the guy wants to be tried in Ireland. Presumably because the maximum sentence he can expect to receive is far less that the throw-away-the-key-and-fuck-you-until-you-die sentence he can expect to enjoy if the US lay their hands on him.

    2. Re:So no more soveriegn countries then ? by Computershack · · Score: 2

      This is a complete disgrace. This is an Irish citizen. If he's committed a crime on Irish soil he should be tried in and Irish court under Irish law.

      The idea that countries, mainly America, can now extradite people all over the world sticks two fingers up at the idea of sovereign states.

      What's next ? An American being sent to face the death penalty because there's a video of them dropping some chewing gum on the streets of Singapore ?

      Sorry but this is a basic tenet of international law and has been for many many years, that you cannot direct harm in one country from another and be immune from prosecution simply because you did it from elsewhere.

      --
      I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams
    3. Re:So no more soveriegn countries then ? by haruchai · · Score: 1

      "that you cannot direct harm in one country from another and be immune from prosecution simply because you did it from elsewhere"

      Unless you happen to be working for a government of course.

      --
      Pain is merely failure leaving the body
    4. Re:So no more soveriegn countries then ? by Dahamma · · Score: 1

      Except it's the US that did all of the investigation and built up all of the evidence - and will bear all of the expense of a trial. Ireland probably doesn't want to bother prosecuting this one guy themselves, especially since he's not the only defendant. For whatever reason the US just loves to spend shit tons of money acting as the world's police force...

    5. Re:So no more soveriegn countries then ? by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      The idea that countries, mainly America, can now extradite people all over the world sticks two fingers up at the idea of sovereign states.

      No, it doesn't. Extradition requires a treaty and needs to meet certain conditions. These treaties are generally symmetric (the Irish-US treaty is). Such treaties have been around for a long time.

      http://www.citizensinformation...

      Ireland can cancel its extradition treaty with the US any time it likes.

      But states generally like these treaties because there is little point in country A spending money on the investigation, prosecution, and imprisonment for a crime committed in country B.

    6. Re:So no more soveriegn countries then ? by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      He also was selling into the US. You no more get to do that than you get to lob rockets across a border and get away with it.

      Now if that crime was not also illegal in Ireland, you may have a case.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    7. Re:So no more soveriegn countries then ? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Sorry but this is a basic tenet of international law and has been for many many years, that you cannot direct harm in one country from another

      Okay, so show us who was directly harmed by Silk Road. The "crime" they facilitated was unlawful commerce, which does not have a victim, and thus should not be able to be a crime and consequently should not lead to rendition.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. Re:So what by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    These stories are FBI agenda. They are pretending they are required for the public safety. Really they are the biggest drug traffickers and hugest mole network in the history of mankind.

    They did worse at Debian. They killed Ian Murdock. They are murderers, liars, and treasonous backstabbing spies sucking off the tax payer dollars.

  3. Re:WELL NO DOUBT ITS THANKS TO SLASHDOT FBI by negRo_slim · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Fucking cunts.

    My thoughts exactly, especially the life sentence of Ulbricht. That is simply insane considering the harm reduction SR offered to people who were going to buy their dope anyways. 10 years max, plus 10 for each attempted murder for higher would be much more just and sane.

    --
    On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
  4. Does this ever happen the other way? by quantaman · · Score: 2

    An Irishman arrested for crime he committed while residing in Ireland (did he spend any time in the US?).

    Presumably this happened because the Silk Road facilitated crimes in the US. But does it even go the other way? Are there ever people extradited from the US because their online activities broke the law in other countries? Could any country have done the same and the FBI is just the one to have bothered, or was there something specific to the US that happened?

    --
    I stole this Sig
    1. Re:Does this ever happen the other way? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      Presumably this happened because the Silk Road facilitated crimes in the US. But does it even go the other way? Are there ever people extradited from the US because their online activities broke the law in other countries?

      I don't know if it has happened specifically with online criminal activity, but Americans do get extradited to other countries.

      There was a CIA agent who was involved with some rendition during the Bush Administration who got tried in absentia in Italy, found guilty and then shipped over there. Let me see if I can find it...yes. Here it is:

      http://www.usatoday.com/story/...

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:Does this ever happen the other way? by ooloorie · · Score: 1

      Are there ever people extradited from the US because their online activities broke the law in other countries?

      That is not sufficient; people can only be extradited if the activity is a felony in both countries. Since US laws restricting online activities are generally more liberal than those found elsewhere, that is fairly unlikely. Furthermore, the US is a prime target for foreign hackers, while other countries rarely are.

    3. Re:Does this ever happen the other way? by quantaman · · Score: 1

      Presumably this happened because the Silk Road facilitated crimes in the US. But does it even go the other way? Are there ever people extradited from the US because their online activities broke the law in other countries?

      I don't know if it has happened specifically with online criminal activity, but Americans do get extradited to other countries.

      There was a CIA agent who was involved with some rendition during the Bush Administration who got tried in absentia in Italy, found guilty and then shipped over there. Let me see if I can find it...yes. Here it is:

      http://www.usatoday.com/story/...

      That's standard extradition, she physically committed that crime while standing in Italy.

      But a website doesn't have the same kind of physical presence so the illegal act could theoretically happen anywhere the website is accessed. For instance Thailand makes it illegal to insult their dumbass of a king, but I don't anticipate myself being arrested and extradited to Thailand because someone in Thailand reads my comment.

      So did anything specific happen only in the US? If Ireland did their own investigation could they have instead extradited the Americans to stand trial in Ireland?

      --
      I stole this Sig
    4. Re:Does this ever happen the other way? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      But a website doesn't have the same kind of physical presence so the illegal act could theoretically happen anywhere the website is accessed.

      The internet is not a magical place where crimes committed across national borders aren't really crimes. If I'm at Niagra Falls, on the Canadian side of the border, and I use a high-powered rifle to kill someone's prized Hereford on the American side of the border, guess what? I committed a crime and I will be extradited. I can't say, "I'm on the Canadian side of the border, so I'm on glue!"

      I would think that the nationality of the crime is determined to great extent by the location of the victim.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re:Does this ever happen the other way? by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      Interesting. However the article does not mention if she was acting under official instruction or had gone rogue. If the administration pushed this kind of thing, they should properly take a black eye, but not give up underlings.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    6. Re:Does this ever happen the other way? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Interesting. However the article does not mention if she was acting under official instruction or had gone rogue. If the administration pushed this kind of thing, they should properly take a black eye, but not give up underlings.

      She was a CIA spook. We've both seen the movies: "The agency will disavow any knowledge of your actions."

      Nobody's accountable anymore, and that's not the worst of it.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    7. Re:Does this ever happen the other way? by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

      There was a CIA agent who was involved with some rendition during the Bush Administration who got tried in absentia in Italy, found guilty and then shipped over there. Let me see if I can find it...yes. Here it is:

      Not quite like that. Quite a few CIA agents have been tried and found guilty in absentia in Italy. (And the person they abducted was apparently innocent, but got tortured in the country that he was moved to and then let go. So these CIA agents were responsible for the torture of an innocent man). None of them was extradited from the USA. One of them made the mistake of going to Portugal and is now waiting for extradition. And she says she went for "to clear her name" - and not quite figuring out in her mind that Italy is s sovereign country, and that she has been convicted to a jail sentence in that country.

    8. Re:Does this ever happen the other way? by haruchai · · Score: 1

      "After the snatch in broad daylight, he was transferred to U.S. military bases in Italy and Germany before being moved to Egypt, where he says he was tortured. He was held for a year and released in 2004.

      De Sousa was among 26 Americans convicted in absentia for their alleged role in the operation. None of the defendants, who fled the country, has been in Italian custody"

      So a trial that convicted TWENTY-SIX CIA agents / officers and the ONLY person who's going to face Italian justice is a WOMAN born in INDIA?
      You've come a long way, baby.

      --
      Pain is merely failure leaving the body
    9. Re:Does this ever happen the other way? by haruchai · · Score: 1

      Pick your borders more carefully. If you're on the MEXICAN side of the border, you could probably kill a police officer the size of a prized Hereford and not be extradited, unless life in prison / no parole and the death penalty are off the table

        http://www.sfgate.com/crime/ar...

      --
      Pain is merely failure leaving the body
    10. Re:Does this ever happen the other way? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I would think that the nationality of the crime is determined to great extent by the location of the victim.

      That's the problem here; a crime requires a victim, and yet in this case, there is no victim. The state (nation, in this case) is claiming to have been victimized by free trade.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  5. Re:WELL NO DOUBT ITS THANKS TO SLASHDOT FBI by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.
       

  6. Re:protecting remnants of a failed economy by ooloorie · · Score: 1

    FBI and American court system is trying hard to protect the last remnants of a failed economy that USA is running.

    Silk Road would be just as illegal in Europe, and Europe is doing economically far worse than the US. And the more the US adopts European-style policies (most of the stuff both Trump and Hillary are running on), the more anemic the US economy will become.

  7. Re: So what by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Insightful? Trolls trolling trolls, I suppose.

  8. Re:WELL NO DOUBT ITS THANKS TO SLASHDOT FBI by Facekhan · · Score: 2

    The allegations about murder-for-hire were never proven in the court or even charged iirc. He was basically convicted for being in a criminal enterprise by running the marketplace. There are plenty of violent criminals who got far lighter sentences than Ulbricht for basically acting as an online middleman for illegal transactions.
    IMHO, you could probably imprison the CEO of Ebay for being the biggest fence of stolen goods under the same theory.

  9. Re:WELL NO DOUBT ITS THANKS TO SLASHDOT FBI by guruevi · · Score: 1

    Yeah, but that guy paid the right people and thus will never be charged. Ulbright, Schwartz and Applebaum are just an example for what happens if you want to create a truly anonymous space that can't be controlled or inspected by governments.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  10. THE EMPIRE DOESN'T EXIST by axewolf · · Score: 1

    Remember, every country in the west is its own independent, sovereign nation and they just decide all on their own with absolutely no pressure that it is in the best interest of their domestic affairs to follow the agenda of larger nations exactly

  11. Re: Waiting for next ---FBI--- story here. by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    Car autpilots are core as it gets for news for nerds. Go elsewhere.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  12. Shame on Ireland by manu0601 · · Score: 1

    Shame on Ireland for extraditing one of its citizen to a country that would certainly not do the same for its own citizen.

    That person should have been prosecuted in Ireland.

  13. Re:protecting remnants of a failed economy by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    Silk Road would be just as illegal in Europe, and Europe is doing economically far worse than the US.

    Who told you that? Been reading the officially published figures designed to make you feel good about Obama again? Hint: They're precisely the same shit pulled under Bush to make us feel like we weren't in the middle of a massive recession. The unemployment rate in particular is invented out of bullshit. We currently have a homelessness rate not seen since the great depression and the number of people seeking employment has not changed appreciably in almost a decade in spite of the creation of "millions" of new jobs — the majority of them are minimum wage, upon which you cannot reasonably live. Over half of minimum wage earners are supporting a family, because there is no better job available to them even if they had more training (which is often available free from the state.)

    As bad as things look in Europe, the majority of their nations are solvent. America would already be in receivership if it weren't for our military.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  14. Re:protecting remnants of a failed economy by ooloorie · · Score: 1

    Who told you that?

    My family and friends. Colleagues. People I meet in London, Paris, and Berlin. You know, that sort of thing.

    I'm not going to even begin to attempt to disentangle the rest of your economic nonsense and bullshit. Suffice it to say that, yes, Obama has been misrepresenting the economy, and, yes, the US economy is far worse than it should be doing with better government. But the US is still doing much better than Europe. You can see that by looking at basic economic data (growth, incomes, long term unemployment, youth unemployment, spending patterns, etc.). Or you can also simply listen to people with first hand experience, like me.