# Lifestyles & Discussion > Bitcoin / Cryptocurrencies >  Breaking: Silk Road Shut Down. "Dread Pirate Roberts" in Custody

## amy31416

Allegedly had "hits" put out on people.

Will add links as I find them.

http://nation.time.com/2013/10/02/al...itcoin-seized/




> U.S. law enforcement officials have shut down down Silk Road, the online drug market, following a raid and an arrest of Ross William Ulbricht, the site’s alleged proprietor.
> 
> According to a Justice Department release, Ulbricht, 29, was arrested in San Francisco and will be presented in San Francisco federal court Wednesday morning. Until Wednesday, the person who ran the site was known only by the pseudonym “Dread Pirate Roberts.”
> 
> In addition to arresting Ulbricht, the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized approximately $3.6 million in Bitcoin, making it the biggest seizure in the digital currency’s history.
> 
> Federal prosecutors in New York charged Ulbricht with narcotics trafficking conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy. A criminal complaint also alleges that in March 2013, Ulbricht engaged in a “murder-for-hire” scheme where he enlisted one Silk Road user to murder another Silk Road user who was threatening to release the identities of all of the website’s users.
> 
> The operation that led to Ulbricht’s arrest was a collaboration between the FBI, police, and prosecutors in the Southern District of New York; since November 2011, agents claim to have made over 100 different drug purchases through Silk Road. The complaint estimates that Silk Road has processed transactions worth over a total of 9.5 million Bitcoins, which adds up to roughly $1.2 billion in sales.
> ...






Mods: Wasn't sure if I should put this in the BTC forum or here. Your call, sorry for the hassle.

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## angelatc

You know, I hate to see this.  I'm all about the free market.

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## oyarde

So he is not really Bartholomew Roberts .

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## amy31416

> You know, I hate to see this.  I'm all about the free market.


Me too. Drugs aren't actually the only thing they sold on the market.




> So he is not really Barthomew Roberts .


Funny thing is, his moniker comes from "The Princess Bride."

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## ronpaulfollower999

BTC down $30 with this news. BTFD?

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## specsaregood

> A criminal complaint also alleges that in March 2013, Ulbricht engaged in a “murder-for-hire” scheme where he enlisted one Silk Road user to murder another Silk Road user who was threatening to release the identities of all of the website’s users.


This seems to be the most interesting part.  How did he get their identities and who else has them?

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## oyarde

> Me too. Drugs aren't actually the only thing they sold on the market.
> 
> 
> 
> Funny thing is, his moniker comes from "The Princess Bride."


 I had no idea Princess Bride had pirates in it . Any kids animation is better if you throw in some pirates ,indians , monkeys etc . I watched Peter Pan a couple weeks ago.

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## oyarde

> This seems to be the most interesting part.  How did he get their identities and who else has them?


Yep.

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## tangent4ronpaul

> BTC down $30 with this news. BTFD?


buy opportunity?

-t

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## amy31416

> This seems to be the most interesting part.  How did he get their identities and who else has them?


Almost exactly what I asked Kludge.

Also, he looks a bit like Walt, Jr.

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## amy31416

> BTC down $30 with this news. BTFD?


Down more than that in the last hour. I think it'll go down a decent bit more.

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## amy31416

> BTC down $30 with this news. BTFD?


Down more than that in the last hour. I think it'll go down a decent bit more.

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## specsaregood

> Almost exactly what I asked Kludge.


If the feds shut the site down; then you can bet they have those identities as well; otherwise they would have left it running while they collected them.

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## specsaregood

> Down more than that in the last hour. I think it'll go down a decent bit more.


So whats the easiest way to buy?

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## tangent4ronpaul

OMG! - I hope they shipped my order before they got raided!!!!  

-t

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## amy31416

He's a member of the Mises Institute according to some of the info being put out.

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## amy31416

> So whats the easiest way to buy?


Well, there was just an upward bounce from $85 to $106.

Easiest way to buy is from an individual. Kludge uses bitcointalk.org.

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## amy31416

> If the feds shut the site down; then you can bet they have those identities as well; otherwise they would have left it running while they collected them.


It's definitely a possibility.

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## libertyjam

The Fall of Atlantis – a Moderator tells
Posted: September 26, 2013 in Dark Web\

“Atlantis admins shut down the site and ran away with the coins. It’s the truth.” - Cicero, Moderator of Atlantis Marketplace forum
http://allthingsvice.com/2013/09/26/...derator-tells/

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## AuH20

https://medium.com/p/d48995e8eb5a

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## amy31416

> https://medium.com/p/d48995e8eb5a


No doubt the guy was a $#@!-up.

And why the hell would he stay in the US? Dumbass.

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## mczerone

(A) It looks like this is really DPR.

(B) The whole hitman story sounds fishy - they give the city and time for the apparent "proved" hit, but the town doesn't have any record of homicides. I wonder if the hit-ee made a sock puppet and took the money paid to the hitter? And it doesn't sound like something DPR would resort to, but in the black market, there's no legitimate recourse, so things happen...

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## AuH20

> No doubt the guy was a $#@!-up.
> 
> And why the hell would he stay in the US? Dumbass.


What's ironic is that he is not the original creator of the famed Silk Road nor the original Dread Pirate Roberts. Ulbricht was an associate of the original founder that had fixed a security flaw in the transaction software and then decided to buy the original DPR out, in the process taking over his venture & persona. The original DPR had gotten out.

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## amy31416

> What's ironic is that he is not the original creator of the famed Silk Road nor the original Dread Pirate Roberts. Ulbricht was an associate of the original founder that fixed a security flaw in the transaction software and then decided to buy the original DPR out, in the process taking over his venture & persona. The original DPR got out.


Allegedly. Apparently some think that he's really the original DPR who pulled the buyout stunt to protect himself.

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## dannno

> This seems to be the most interesting part.  How did he get their identities and who else has them?


What sucks is Silk Road guy was a victim of extortion - the main reason users want their identity kept private is that they are engaged in the black market, so of course they want it kept private - otherwise they would get unwarranted violence directed at them from the state - and Silk Road couldn't go to the authorities to remedy the situation because they are running the black market...so what other choice did authorities give him than to kill him? He was basically defending himself and every other user on Silk Road from unwarranted violence from government.

It's sort of like Breaking Bad.. The only reason Walt had to engage in what would normally be considered immoral behavior was because he was involved in black market activity.. but put in the situations that he was in, it could easily be argued that he was doing something like killing Gale in self defense.

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## amy31416

> What's ironic is that he is not the original creator of the famed Silk Road nor the original Dread Pirate Roberts. Ulbricht was an associate of the original founder that fixed a security flaw in the transaction software and then decided to buy the original DPR out, in the process taking over his venture & persona. The original DPR got out.


Allegedly. Apparently some think that he's really the original DPR who pulled the buyout stunt to protect himself.

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## amy31416

> FBI's Case Against Silk Road Boss Is A Fascinating Read
> from the for-you-breaking-bad-junkies dept
> It's been known for quite some time that the feds were desperately trying to hunt down the folks behind Silk Road, the somewhat infamous "dark web" e-commerce site, accessible only via Tor, which was famous mainly for selling drugs in a slightly anonymous fashion. Of course, when the news came out recently that the FBI had used malware to reveal Tor Browser users, many believed that this was part of an attempt to track down Silk Road, and that seems increasingly likely after the FBI announced this morning that it has arrested Silk Road's owner, Ross William Ulbricht, who went by the moniker "Dread Pirate Roberts" online. Turns out that Ulbricht was based in San Francisco and was arrested at the public library, of all places. 
> 
> The case against him (pdf) is interesting, because beyond just going after him for helping to distribute illegal drugs, they claim that he solicited a Silk Road user in a murder-for-hire request (though he's not charged with that), to potentially go after a different Silk Road user who was threatening to reveal the identities of people on the site (the user claimed to have hacked a large vendor's account, and demanded $500,000 to not reveal names). They also go after him (of course) with a CFAA violation claim and a money laundering claim. Of course, we've seen the DOJ inflate and pile on charges against people in the past, so it will be worth watching to see what details come out of this -- but soliciting a murder, if true, seems like a fairly big deal. 
> 
> In addition, the complaint against him claims that Silk Road generated 9.5 million Bitcoins in revenue, leading to 600,000 Bitcoins in commissions (or roughly $1.2 billion in sales and $79.8 million in commissions). Of course, that seems noticeably higher than previous research had suggested. It also notes that the FBI itself made over 100 purchases on Silk Road -- including ecstasy, cocaine, heroin, LSD and others. Apparently, they wanted a lot of evidence. And, in case you were wondering, the FBI informs us that their orders "have typically shown high purity levels of the drug the item was advertised to be on Silk Road." 
> 
> While the details in the complaint seem pretty thorough, there are some tidbits that stand out as questionable. The complaint clearly states that Bitcoin and Tor are both legal and have legitimate purposes, but it also says that Silk Road's use of proxies to "hide the identities of those that run Silk Road... reflect his awareness of the illegal nature of the Silk Road enterprise." I don't quite see how wanting to be anonymous automatically suggests that you're engaged in illegal behavior. Later in the complaint, the FBI agent spends an awful lot of time talking about how Ulbricht was interested in the Mises Institute, the well-known libertarian think tank. I'm not sure what that has to do with anything. The FBI notes that Dread Pirate Roberts' defense of Silk Road included quoting Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard (two economists closely associated with the Mises Institute), but lots of people follow the Mises Institute, so that seems like a stretch. 
> ...


http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201...ing-read.shtml

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## VanBummel

Plot twist: Government owned Silk Road, it's offline due to the shutdown.

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## dannno

> they claim that he solicited a Silk Road user in a murder-for-hire request (though he's not charged with that), to potentially go after a different Silk Road user who was threatening to reveal the identities of people on the site (the user claimed to have hacked a large vendor's account, and demanded $500,000 to not reveal names).


Ya it sounds like the hit was completely morally justifiable. 

The guy who was threatening to send out the user identities was going to bring down unwarranted violence from the government against SR and potentially many of the users of the SR, so in order to protect them he would have to kill this guy who was committing extortion against him because he cannot go to the authorities with this matter. 

They should really be going after the guy who hacked the account and was trying to extort him, but guess what? That guy was probably a Fed who was merely going to trace him down after the payment was made.

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## Occam's Banana

> What's ironic is that he is not the original creator of the famed Silk Road nor the original Dread Pirate Roberts. Ulbricht was an associate of the original founder that had fixed a security flaw in the transaction software and then decided to buy the original DPR out, in the process taking over his venture & persona. The original DPR had gotten out.


For someone sporting the moniker "Dread Pirate Roberts," that is not ironic - in fact, it is entirely fitting and appropriate.

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## Occam's Banana

> [...] Later in the complaint, the FBI agent spends an awful lot of  time talking about how Ulbricht was interested in the Mises Institute,  the well-known libertarian think tank. I'm not sure what that has to do  with anything. The FBI notes that Dread Pirate Roberts' defense of Silk  Road included quoting Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard (two  economists closely associated with the Mises Institute), but lots of  people follow the Mises Institute, so that seems like a stretch. 
> 
> Another questionable tidbit: the FBI notes that Ulbricht posted a  question to Stack Overflow using his real name, but "less than one  minute later, Ulbricht changed his username at Stack Overflow from 'Ross  Ulbricht' to 'frosty.'" and then the FBI agent noted "I know that  criminals seeking to hide their identity online will often use  pseudononymous usernames to conceal their identity." Later, after  Ulbricht changes the email on the account to frosty@frosty.com  -- an invalid email address -- the FBI agent similarly notes that  "criminals seeking to hide their identity online will often use  fictitious e-mail addresses." [...]


I have done every one of these things (some of them more than once).

Showing interest in the Mises Institute - check.
Quoting Ludwig von Mises - check.
Quoting Murray Rothbard - check.
Changing a username at a website - check.
Using a pseudonym as a username - check.
Using a non-existent email address - check.

Watch out, yo! I'm OG ...

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## angelatc

> I have done every one of these things (some of them more than once).
> 
> Showing interest in the Mises Institute - check.
> Quoting Ludwig von Mises - check.
> Quoting Murray Rothbard - check.
> Changing a username at a website - check.
> Using a pseudonym as a username - check.
> Using a non-existent email address - check.
> 
> Watch out, yo! I'm OG ...






> Earlier this year, authorities in South Carolina arrested Eric Daniel Hughes, known on Silk Road as *“Casey Jones,”* and charged him in state court with drug possession. The Drug Enforcement Agency seized units of bitcoin, which Hughes allegedly used to purchase drugs from the online market.




http://freebeacon.com/fbi-shuts-down...-hire-website/

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## devil21

I don't know much about bitcoin so pardon if this is a stupid question.  How can the feds seize bitcoins?

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## fisharmor

> I had no idea Princess Bride had pirates in it .  Any kids animation is better if you throw in some pirates ,indians ,  monkeys etc . I watched Peter Pan a couple weeks ago.


Animation?
"You keep using dah whord.  I doo no think ih means wha you think ih means."

If  you haven't seen The Princess Bride - the live action movie directed by  Rob Reiner and starring Robin Wright, Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Andre  the Giant, and a host of others... then you need to get it and watch  it.  It contains the single most badass swordfight ever committed to  film.





> processed transactions worth over a total of *9.5 million Bitcoins*, which *adds up* to roughly *$1.2 billion* in sales.


Is anyone else surprised that they let that go to print????

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## dannno

//

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## dannno

> I don't know much about bitcoin so pardon if this is a stupid question.  How can the feds seize bitcoins?


They would have to create a wallet somewhere just like anybody else and transfer the coins to their wallet from the wallet of the person who owned them, which would require access to the original account/wallet. 

They can keep the coins on a wallet on an exchange or something or they can keep them on a wallet that they install on their computer.

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## devil21

Thanks for explanation.  I thought the security of bitcoins was one of the touted benefits, being that it's not "centralized" like fiat bank accounts.  When cops seize bank accounts they send court orders to the banks and the accounts are frozen, etc.  Sounds kinda like the cops/gov't can jack anyone's bitcoins without any court process as long as they can get to the person's wallet.

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## evilfunnystuff

> Thanks for explanation.  I thought the security of bitcoins was one of the touted benefits, being that it's not "centralized" like fiat bank accounts.  When cops seize bank accounts they send court orders to the banks and the accounts are frozen, etc.  Sounds kinda like the cops/gov't can jack anyone's bitcoins without any court process as long as they can get to the person's wallet.


It is the users responsibility to keep the wallet as physically and intellectually secure as they deem necessary . 

Physical as in no one can get their hands on it, can be done through hiding or memorization. 

Intellectually as in keeping it encrypted, some folks split the wallet into a few different files in addition to encryption and keep those files in different physical locations. 

Also keeping backups are important due to disasters, media degradation, etc.


With liberty comes responsibility.

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## TomKat

So I guess the $3.5m question is, Who will create the next Silk Road?

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## dannno

> So I guess the $3.5m question is, Who will create the next Silk Road?


I don't know. But whoever it is will very likely be better at it. I can't wait.

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## green73

How am I going to communicate with extra-dimensional aliens without my DMT?

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## muh_roads

> The complaint estimates that Silk Road has processed transactions worth  over a total of 9.5 million Bitcoins, which adds up to roughly $1.2  billion in sales.


False.  Most of the 9.5 million that moved around were at 2011-2012 rates, not todays rates.

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## CPUd

> A pirate of near-mythical reputation, The Dread Pirate Roberts is feared across the seven seas for his ruthlessness and swordfighting prowess, and is well known for taking no prisoners.
> 
> It is revealed during the course of the story that Roberts is not one man, but a series of individuals who periodically pass the name and reputation to a chosen successor. Everyone except the successor and the former Roberts is then released at a convenient port, and a new crew is hired. The former Roberts stays aboard as first mate, referring to his successor as "Captain Roberts", and thereby establishing the new Roberts' persona. After the crew is convinced, the former Roberts leaves the ship and retires on his earnings.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dread_Pirate_Roberts

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## dannno

> How am I going to communicate with extra-dimensional aliens without my DMT?


You can learn to make it on youtube?

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## dannno

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dread_Pirate_Roberts


Verrrry interesting.

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## Ender

> Animation?
> "You keep using dah whord.  I doo no think ih means wha you think ih means."
> 
> If  you haven't seen The Princess Bride - the live action movie directed by  Rob Reiner and starring Robin Wright, Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Andre  the Giant, and a host of others... then you need to get it and watch  it.  It contains the single most badass swordfight ever committed to  film.


And is one of the most quoted films of all time.

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## eduardo89

$3.9 million in BTC seized. I wish there was a way for it to just be deleted to keep it out of the Fed's hands.

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## Shane Harris

Just bought a Silk Road t-shirt in tribute (http://www.7bucktees.com/shop/plain-silk-road-t-shirt/). Really depressing news.

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## green73

*BREAKING: More Silk Road Arrests* 




> AP reports:
> 
> Authorities in Britain, Sweden, and the United States have arrested eight more people following last week's closure of Silk Road, a notorious black market website which helped dealers to sell drugs under the cloak of anonymity, officials and media said Tuesday.
> 
> In the U.K., the country's newly-established National Crime Agency warned that more arrests were on the way[...]
> 
> Britain's National Crime Agency said it had seized millions of pounds (dollars) worth of bitcoins, the electronic currency used on the site, and the agency's director general, Keith Bristow, said in a statement that other online drug dealers should expect a knock on their door.
> 
> "These latest arrests are just the start; there are many more to come," he said.
> ...


http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com...d-arrests.html

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## green73

> *"Any Large Sellers on Silk Road Should Be Very Nervous"* 
> 
> Far from being an anonymous online operation, it appears that the FBI  has been monitoring, for an extended period of time, operations on Silk  Road. Unless a user of Silk Road was using extraordinary precautions,  most Silk Road users have likely been identified by the FBI.
> 
> Were you a user of the exchange and will the FBI come knocking on your  door? It just depends how far down the food chain the FBI wants to go.  Note: Those who taunted the FBI by sending messages to the FBI  Bitcoin  wallet, should consider themselves at the top of the list, if they also  used Silk Road for any illegal activities. As I have stated many times  since the arrest of Adam Kokesh, it is not a very bright idea to taunt  the government directly. As Noam Chomsky put it, "I don't want to speak  truth to power, I want to speak truth to the people."
> 
> USA Today reports:
>  Officials say the black market website brokered more than $1 billion in  sales before the FBI collared Ulbricht at a public library on Oct. 1. In  its complaint, the bureau said it had managed to copy the contents of  the site's server — something one expert said would likely provide  international authorities with detailed information about the site's  dealers.
> 
> "Any large sellers on Silk Road should be very nervous," said Nicholas  Weaver, a researcher with the International Computer Science Institute  in Berkeley and the University of California, San Diego.


http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com...ad-should.html

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## amy31416

Very bad news. If I were a seller of anything on SR, I'd be in hiding right now, regardless of legality.

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## dannno

I actually had a small amount of bitcoin in a wallet on silk road, but i never sold or bought anything illegal. I wonder if I should ask the FBI for my money back that they stole from me.

I read an article that DRP has about $80 million in bitcoin and the feds can't get figure out how to get access to it. DRP will probably never get it back, but hopefully the feds don't get it either.

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## amonasro

Most likely DPR used proper security for his wallets, meaning they were encrypted and stored offline, hidden. 

If the Feds don't have the private keys of his addresses they can do nothing with the money, end of story.

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## amy31416

> Silk Road: suspicions grow that server was hacked ahead of arrests
> How do you find a site that's hosted on the Tor system? In theory, you can't - which is why there are questions over how the FBI could image it and take it down last week
> Follow Charles Arthur by emailBETA
> Share 80
> 
> 
> 1
> inShare
> 14
> ...


http://www.theguardian.com/technolog...ion-fbi-server

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## devil21

Here's the infamous gangster!  lol



FBI having trouble taking his bitcoins
http://www.theguardian.com/technolog...-ross-ulbricht

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## Occam's Banana

> http://www.theguardian.com/technolog...ion-fbi-server


I definitely smell "parallel construction" ...

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## Henry Rogue

> Me too. Drugs aren't actually the only thing they sold on the market.
> 
> 
> 
> Funny thing is, his moniker comes from "The Princess Bride."


"Inconceivable!"
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
Sorry, I couldn't resist.

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## Origanalist

> I have done every one of these things (some of them more than once).
> 
> Showing interest in the Mises Institute - check.
> Quoting Ludwig von Mises - check.
> Quoting Murray Rothbard - check.
> Changing a username at a website - check.
> Using a pseudonym as a username - check.
> Using a non-existent email address - check.
> 
> Watch out, yo! I'm OG ...


You are one bad ass banana yo!

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