Silk Road’s Blake Benthall

The FBI and Europol have swooped to take a number of illegal “deep web” marketplaces offline in a major operation, according to reports. Among the sites taken down is the notorious Silk Road 2.0, which sprung up in the wake of the original Silk Road’s closure last year.

The FBI confirmed Silk Road 2.0 had been taken down on Twitter, adding that the site’s alleged operator – 26-year old Blake Benthall, aka “Defcon” – has been arrested in San Francisco. He’s now been charged with drug trafficking, conspiracy to commit computer hacking, and money laundering, and potentially faces a life sentence.

Operator of Silk Road 2.0, Blake Benthall, arrested yesterday by FBI agents in San Francisco, CA

— FBI New York (@NewYorkFBI) November 6, 2014

A number of other popular dark web markets have reportedly been shutdown too, including Cloud9, Hydra and the Cannabis Road forum, according to reports. In addition, the Irish Examiner reports that two more suspects have been arrested in Ireland, as part of the FBI and Europol’s Operation Onymous.

Here’s the new ‘home page’ of the Silk Road 2.0:

A little information about Benthall’s background can be gleaned from his various social media accounts. His LinkedIn and Facebook profiles claim he previously worked at Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), while on Twitter he claims to be a “rocket scientist” as well as a Bitcoin enthusiast.

The FBI says Benthall appeared in court on Thursday, where it was stated he is “likely to flee and should not be released”, reports Ars Technica. As such, it’s unlikely he’ll be able to secure bail, and the paper reports he is set to be transferred to a jail in New York in the next two weeks.

A statement from the US Attorny’s Office says Silk Road 2.0 enabled over 100,000 people to trade in illegal drugs. The site is said to have operated in much the same way as the original Silk Road site did:

“In particular, like its predecessor, Silk Road 2.0 operated exclusively on the “Tor” network and required all transactions to be paid for in Bitcoins in order to preserve its users’ anonymity and evade detection by law enforcement. Likewise, the offerings on Silk Road 2.0 consisted overwhelmingly of illegal drugs, which were openly advertised as such on the site. As of October 17, 2014, Silk Road 2.0 had over 13,000 listings for controlled substances.”

Besides drugs, other illicit goods offered on the site included fake identification documents and computer-hacking tools.

As for the other sites taken down, there’s scant information available at present. Wired.com reports both the Hydra and Cloud 9 sites are now displaying the same “This Hidden Site Has Been Seized” notices as Silk Road 2.0. It adds that the FBI says its closed down other illegal marketplaces too, and will name these in a statement on Friday.

What isn’t clear is how law enforcement were able to shut down so many sites at once – Silk Road 2.0’s takedown seems to be the result of undercover policing and some mistakes by its administrator, but it’s not known how the other sites were closed. Someone claiming to be an administrator on Cloud9 has since posted on Reddit to say the FBI only managed to shut down one of its servers and that it’s looking for a new one, so it’s possible that site may reappear soon.

photo credit: Chris Yarzab via photopin cc