Silk Road 2.0 Shutdown after FBI Arrests Suspected Operator

After law enforcement agencies shutdown Silk Road back in late 2013, Silk Road 2.0 sprouted out of the ground and rose to prominence. However, it would seem that the FBI alongside the Department of Homeland Security in the United States has arrested and is holding in custody the owner of Silk Road 2.0. The alleged man behind it all is a 26 year old by the name of Blake Benthall – who is said to have operated under the alias of Defcon. The authorities have said that Mr Benthall was running the site through the anonymity network known as Tor.

It’s alleged than an undercover agent working for the authorities managed to weasel their way into the sites support staff, and was able to access restricted areas and content of the site – which allowed conversation between undercover authorities and Mr Benthall. The FBI is claiming that the site had approximately 150,000 active users, and was estimated to be making sales profits of around $8 million USD per month. Things aren’t looking great for Mr Benthall – he’s since been charged by authorities with with one count of conspiring to commit narcotics trafficking, one count of conspiring to commit computer hacking, one count of conspiring to traffic in fraudulent identification documents and one count of money laundering.

Thanks to Wired for providing us with this information.