Silk Road, we hardly knew ye. The man alleged to be behind the so-called Amazon.com of Drugs that ran on the Undernet — far from the search queries and keystrokes of everyday web surfers — has been nabbed by the feds. Here’s a look at what’s been going down so far, number by number.
2.5
The approximate number of years Silk Road operated
29
The age of the alleged mastermind behind the Silk Road website, Ross William Ulbricht
23
The number of months the government had been investigating Silk Road
100+
The number of drug purchases made on Silk Road by undercover agents
13,000
The approximate number of listings on the site selling controlled substances
1,100+
The number of ads and listings for hacked e-commerce accounts, pirated content, fake identification, hackers for hire and other services
1 Million
The approximate number of Silk Road user accounts
$1.2 Billion
The approximate amount of business Silk Road did between February 2011 and July 2013
$80 Million
The approximate commission Ulbricht made from the above-mentioned business
$1,000
The amount Ulbricht allegedly paid per month to rent a bedroom in a San Francisco home he shared with two other people
$500,000
The amount one Silk Road user with the handle FriendlyChemist apparently demanded Ulbricht pay to avoid having the identities of other Silk Road users revealed
$150,000
The amount Ulbricht reportedly agreed to pay another Silk Road user to murder FriendlyChemist (there’s no evidence that the murder happened)
$80,000
The amount Ulbricht reportedly paid for the torture and murder of a Silk Road employee he thought stole from him and might blow his cover (that sum was paid to an undercover officer and the murder never happened)
500
The range, in feet, within which Ulbricht lived to a coffee shop’s Wi-Fi network; Ulbricht reportedly logged into it without anonymizing himself in order to administer the Silk Road site, which alerted investigators
9
The number of false identification documents Ulbricht reportedly ordered from a Canadian Silk Road user; the documents — one of which contained Ulbricht’s photo and real birth date — were seized by Customs and led to Ulbricht’s eventual arrest
$3.6 Million
The dollar equivalent of Bitcoin digital currency the FBI seized when shutting down the Silk Road site
∞
The amount of time Ulbricht would spend locked up if convicted on all charges
Sources:
- Silk Road: California Man Charged in Black Market Drug Scheme [Associated Press]
- Feds Take Down Online Fraud Bazaar ‘Silk Road’, Arrest Alleged Mastermind [Krebs on Security]
- Silk Road’s mastermind allegedly paid $80,000 for a hitman. The hitman was a cop. [Washington Post]
- FBI seizes underground drug market Silk Road, owner indicted in New York [The Verge]
- How An Unbelievable Hitman Conspiracy Helped Shut Down The Internet’s Biggest Black Market [BuzzFeed]
- How the feds took down the Dread Pirate Roberts [Ars Technica]
- Feds Raid Drug Market Silk Road and Seize $3.6 Million in Bitcoin [TIME]
- Ross Ulbricht Charged With Running Silk Road [NYMag]