Welp, that settles that. Anybody who was wondering if authorities were going to keep going after the arrest of Silk Road kingpin Ross Ulbricht and start targeting users don’t need to wonder anymore. Multiple arrests have now been made worldwide, and it looks like more are on the way.
This new wave of arrests knows no borders. US authorities charged a 40-year-old Washington man believed to have been in “top 1 per cent of sellers” on Silk Road along with his roommate for selling methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine — including one particular blend called “1980s Time Machine”. Meanwhile, four users in the United Kingdom were taken in for drug charges, and a pair of men in Sweden were arrested for selling pot on Silk Road.
It’s unclear how related to Ross Ulbricht’s case this latest wave of arrests is. Common sense suggests that the FBI could have easily used data on Silk Roads servers which they managed to physically track down and seize. In the UK, it was not local police who are going after the suspected Silk Road drug dealers but rather the National Crime Agency, a new organisation that more or less amounts to a British FBI. But again, we don’t yet know if they’re working with the FBI or if the arrests are isolated.
What we do know is that Silk Road users are freaking out. On Reddit, there are now numerous different threads going in which clearly rattled former Silk Road users are wondering if the Feds are coming for them next and if they should talk to a lawyer. Some Reddit users even say that the authorities have contacted them or their parents about receiving drugs through the mail, although it’s possible that those calls are related to a scam that’s been going around that has nothing to do with the Silk Road case.
For now, we can probably sit tight and expect more arrests. There were thousands of people selling drugs on Silk Road, and apparently, the Feds have information that incriminates some of the more serious sellers. It’s unlikely that authorities are going to go after everyone, especially the small time users who bought a couple hits of molly for a glow stick party. Then again, these people were buying and selling drugs, and that’s illegal whether you do it in a dark alley or the dark net. [BuzzFeed]