After Silk Road clone, other black market websites seized by feds
A Newsday illustration showing the Agora website. Online marketplaces for illegal drugs are proliferating at an alarming pace, authorities and digital watchdog groups say, with the quantity of illicit products and money being exchanged on the "dark web" more than doubling since the FBI closed the original Silk Road website in October 2013. Credit: Newsday
One day after criminally charging the operator of a cloned Silk Road black market drug website, federal prosecutors in Manhattan Friday announced the seizure of dozens of sites using a cloaked part of the Internet for illegal trafficking.
The so-called dark market sites -- with names such as Silk Road 2.0, Fake Real Plastic, Pablo Escobar Drugstore and Zero Squad -- peddled goods ranging from drugs, firearms and fake IDs to credit card data and counterfeit money, the government said.
All of them used a network known as "Tor" or "The Onion Router" that makes it difficult to trace hosting computer servers and conducted business in bitcoin virtual currencies to thwart law enforcement and maintain anonymity for buyers and sellers.
"As illegal activity online becomes more prevalent, criminals can no longer expect that they can hide in the shadows of the 'dark Web,' " said Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
On Thursday, prosecutors charged Blake Benthall, 26, of San Francisco with processing $8 million a month in online drug deals at Silk Road 2.0.
That site was founded five weeks after the 2013 arrest of Ross Ulbricht, who was accused of processing $1 billion in drug sales from 2011 to 2013 on the original Silk Road site.
The government said the shutdown of the sites included the seizure of 400 website addresses and computer servers hosting dark Internet sites, coordinated with law enforcement in 16 foreign countries.
Drug experts have said the online marketplace is contributing to a surge in drug abuse and overdoses on Long Island and elsewhere, and politicians such as Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) have called on law enforcement to be more "vigilant."
Sarra Sounds Off, Ep. 15: LI's top basketball players On the latest episode of "Sarra Sounds Off," Newsday's Gregg Sarra and Matt Lindsay take a look top boys and girls basketball players on Long Island.
Sarra Sounds Off, Ep. 15: LI's top basketball players On the latest episode of "Sarra Sounds Off," Newsday's Gregg Sarra and Matt Lindsay take a look top boys and girls basketball players on Long Island.
