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[–]sktrollex 41 points42 points  (11 children)

This is bullshit; I assume the "50 year old" was Plutopete, vendor's a self confessed hippy who's always taken a much more lackadaisical approach to covering his identity and has quite a big web presence, I doubt he'd be caught through connections to SR. I mean jesus he used to openly go round peoples houses to fix their computers.

No offence to them, but I doubt the guys in their early 20's were very high up the food chain either, probably just tech savvy resellers paying off their student loans.

If anything both are strategic arrests rather than a lead to something bigger, and perhaps even a political move from Andy Archibald to shoehorn himself into drug cybercrime after his obsessing over credit card fraud and terrorism.

You really think arresting three students and a bubbly hippy are something to get scared about? These are small fry and the crime agencies know it, I'd be very surprised if we didn't see both parties receive bail in the next few days.

[–]RuinsMoodWithDeadDad 0 points1 point  (4 children)

How in earth is he not? He sold weed on silk road and had photos of his grow op on his public photobucket

[–]reaperx2 15 points16 points  (3 children)

He was more of a head shop. He sold weed seeds, MBB+ packaging, and kramton. None of those are illegal.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And to fully encrypt your computer with TrueCrypt or FileVault on Mac.

[–]kernowgringo 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm a friend of Petes in real life, he wasn't doing anything illegal via SR. So he'll be ok.

He was at a local festival recently with a stall selling his wears and advertises himself as "The best head on the deep web" on his signs.

[–][deleted] 108 points109 points  (43 children)

"These arrests send a clear message to criminals; the hidden internet isn't hidden and your anonymous activity isn't anonymous. We know where you are, what you are doing and we will catch you."

Yes it is you stupid cunt, These people just acted stupidly. You aren't going to win.

[–]magnivea 47 points48 points  (10 children)

Criminals. My MS isn't controlled by addictive medications and neither is my anxiety. I'm a criminal because pharma companies can't do for me what a plant I can grow in my yard can. Scumbags.

[–]fpm2014 3 points4 points  (3 children)

Fuck them.

You can't fight an idea. The successor to Silk Road will be here before long.

Hell, I've thought up designs for an 'unstoppable' replacement to Silk Road that would be simply impossible to shut down, and not that much development work either.

If I've thought of it, someone with the time to create it is surely working on it already.

Exciting times.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They most certainly are. Part of the plans are on the Silk Road forums, I'll try and grab them. (Is the forum still up?)

[–]stingraycharles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You mean something like this?

https://github.com/goshakkk/decentralized-anonymous-marketplace-concept

Announced as "Silkroad 2.0". :)

[–]U4IC 3 points4 points  (12 children)

And its amazing how many people where stupid on SR including the owner....

[–]mehls 78 points79 points  (9 children)

its amazing how many people where stupid

people where stupid

where stupid

dude, you're not helping

[–]derpotologist 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well... it does stress the importance of playing by the rules. Don't be lazy. Being lazy = being stupid in this case.

[–]WishIWasOnACatamaran 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you for this

[–]takeme2space 0 points1 point  (0 children)

3 Points for Gryffindor

[–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Never underestimate peoples stupidity. The security will become non-optional and integrated.

Tor was optional 8 years ago, it isn't now.

[–]Warhawk2052 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I say they were lazy, but if you know what you're doing could make you end up going to jail one would think more people would be careful.

[–]crapadoodledoo 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hope to god you're right.

[–]g0_west -4 points-3 points  (7 children)

Not to be a downer, but they probably will eventually. LE is very dedicated, very good, and wont stop until its over. On the other hand most of us are amatuers, and it only takes one little slip up in your whole life to get caught. The only way we can "win" is by sticking around long enough to see legalisation.

[–][deleted] 16 points17 points  (3 children)

No, they most certainly will not. This war is not winnable. There will be casualties now and again, and people will learn from their mistakes.

The next stage is distributed. SilkRoad is like the Napster of the drug scene, wait until we have the equivalent of torrents. (which is very soon)

[–][deleted] 10 points11 points  (2 children)

what would the equivelant of torrents be? I can't imagine getting .05g of cocaine from 20 people would be a step in the right direction.

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (1 child)

Haha, you're thinking about it wrong. The server is distributed, not the drugs. Just like a 4GB torrent file isn't actually stored on a centralised server (and why torrents succeeded where Napster/Limewire failed)- It's entirely plausible (and definitely the next level) where you download a 'Client' that connects you to the new Silk Road. It isn't actually hosted anywhere, but by everyone involved.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

ohh i see lol that way they can't "take down the server" or pin the server to a single entity.

[–]gnovos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The only way we can "win" is by sticking around long enough to see legalisation.

Or an armed revolution... I'm watching how people talk these days, on reddit and off. If they push people just a bit too far, somebody particularly smart and especially charismatic is going to decide enough is enough and walk out of jail having raised an army.

Now is not the politically smart time for LE to be cracking down on white collar people who've never experienced the court system. These suburban folk are going to see the government "suddenly" intruding into their happy, cushy lives, but unlike the poor crackhead down the block, they're rich, patriotic and think George Washington had the right idea.

I'm very curious to see if they'll push things this far...

[–]-Argentian- 0 points1 point  (1 child)

You're being down voted becaus you're telling the truth nobody wants to hear.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey will it happen to me too? Buying drugs over the Internet might be risky.

[–]Litecoin_Messiah 20 points21 points  (10 children)

Well fuck, I'm from the UK hopefully they won't kill my Dog just because i talk here.

[–]g0_west 18 points19 points  (9 children)

If anybody kills my dog I am murdering that man, I don't even care. Man I'm really angry just thinking about it.

[–]AlertTrevor 4 points5 points  (11 children)

The guy in Devon was PlutoPete but dunno who the Manchester guys were. Dunno how they got caught, weird how they've only got 4 at the moment, although they say 'many more' are coming, which is scary for vendors.

[–]reaperx2 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Well, Pluto's arrest doesn't count. He ran a legit business so he isn't facing any time. Hell he filed taxes on the goods he sold.

[–]airyeezy91 3 points4 points  (5 children)

I read that it's estimated as many as 80% of people didn't use PGP. Could possibly be that?

[–]ClassyAssAssassin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Jesus, I really hope not..

[–]alfredonoodles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hope not, BUT, I honestly think that number sounds legit.

[–]udliketoknow 0 points1 point  (2 children)

Anyone caught for not using PGP has it coming. It's not that much more effort for a lot more security

[–]airyeezy91 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't know why people would consider not using PGP an option.

[–]CCNENCIOVICI 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Was PGP automatic when you sent a message to a vendor?

[–]ihatethekids 3 points4 points  (0 children)

is it scary for customers too?

[–][deleted]  (2 children)

[deleted]

    [–]heffer1g 4 points5 points  (3 children)

    I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the Manchester group was JesusOfRave. They shipped a hell of a lot of product, were from Manchester area, and we know it was at least a couple of guys running that operation.

    [–][deleted]  (1 child)

    [deleted]

      [–]heffer1g 5 points6 points  (0 children)

      He made a slip-up on one of his product detail pages, I believe it was for his LSD shortly before leaving the site. Also when he first arrived on the scene(at least when I ordered from him a while ago) his return address was located in Manchester. When I looked it up, it seemed to be a legit dead-drop location.

      [–]py3 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      That would be such a pity.

      [–][deleted]  (10 children)

      [deleted]

        [–][deleted]  (8 children)

        [deleted]

          [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

          So unencrypted orders before that should have been deleted?

          [–][deleted]  (3 children)

          [deleted]

            [–]ramjambamalam 0 points1 point  (2 children)

            The FBI received an image of the server in July, but the document doesn't state if they had continued access or not. Just because they didn't write about it in the report doesn't mean it didn't happen.

            [–][deleted]  (1 child)

            [deleted]

              [–]BrionyB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              Pray they were that were that stupid to not mod the code. Pray that we were so lucky ;)

              [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

              No the feds had access to the server since 2012, the only imaged it in July 2013. I don't think the police will bother chasing people who made small time orders though, it's unlikely you'd have any drugs left on you, your address on some website isn't enough to score a criminal conviction, and finally UK police are undergoing massive budget cuts.

              [–]TimoY 1 point2 points  (1 child)

              They might decide to "make an example" out of some small time users, just like they have done in the past with casual file-sharers.

              [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              They might attempt to but under UK law if you aren't caught with drugs in your possession then you can't be convicted unless it's a supply charge.

              [–]cheeto69 4 points5 points  (0 children)

              Did you order a large amount of drugs? Like, kilos? If not then no, you are not going to jail.

              [–]sixbluntsdeep 2 points3 points  (0 children)

              "It is impossible for criminals to completely erase their digital footprint. No matter how technology-savvy the offender, they will always make mistakes and this brings law enforcement closer to them."

              So what they're saying is, they can only catch you if you make mistakes.

              [–]lucasjkr 5 points6 points  (12 children)

              if they really wanted to send a message to try to deter people from participating in silkroad 2.0 or whatever the next one is called, they'd go after a few users and throw the book at them (aside from possession that they could get in a controlled delivery, they could probably reach and get charges related to the postal system and inter state transactions too).

              SR wasn't an ordinary bust, you have to imagine they're going to try to demolish as much as they can in order to try to dissuade people from participating in the next one.

              [–][deleted] 19 points20 points  (10 children)

              Yes, that certainly helped when they started suing Napster, Kazaa, Limewire, etc users. I wish we could download movies now with no real fear of legal repercussions, hmmmmm....

              [–]lucasjkr 11 points12 points  (9 children)

              Big difference is that movies are digital. Its incredibly difficult to stop the flow of bits. But drugs, etc are tangible. Much easier to intercede there... As much as you can obscure the bits, there is still a physical package being delivered to a recipient; that's your weak link that you can't get away from.

              [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (8 children)

              Yes but if you assume you're completely anonymous from the digital side -why would that matter? Your only chance of being caught is by a random screen on packages.

              Order domestic (for the UK at least) and this isn't an issue. As there are pretty much 0 internal UK customs. The US has some internal customs but they can't afford to monitor all the mail.

              [–]lucasjkr 8 points9 points  (3 children)

              Yes, if you're just worrying about a random screen, you're probably safe. But if anything happens that makes your random screens occur less randomly, you have problems. And the thing is, you just don't know that that has occurred until it's far too late.

              It could be that your actions attracted attention that put the spot light on your mail. It could be that your dealers actions put the spot light on the mail s/he was sending out. It could be that one of the dealers other customers did something that caused them to look back upstream and follow other packages.

              The point being, you can hide the in the cloud of anonymity with Tor, but you're decidedly outside that cloud once you're having to claim your orders in real life. If anything can be gleamed from all these Complaints that are surfacing in the last few days, it's that the authorities are more than happy to take their time and let things look like they're progressing just fine until they're ready to pull the plug.

              And you have to believe they're well aware of the stampede to other markets; they're also well aware that they can't put an end to them by waiting and waiting for each dealer to err; but to conduct a few or even many high-profile busts of customers, they might do the trick to scare away most of the remaining ones.

              I'm just thinking outloud. I never frequented any of these sites until all this news broke, and it's about the most exciting thing going on besides Snowden so it's been a bunch of fun mental exercises. I would just say you might do well to put yourself in their shoes, rather than take the approach of supreme confidence in the alternative "system"; DPR and Nod both felt confident in the technologies, and they fell; they're just the biggest players, there's nothing to say that many more won't be falling like domino's now as well.

              And who knows, maybe your situation in the UK does indeed keep your more at ease; but the fact is most SR'ers there and on here are from the US. If you live in a country where your authorities are prevented from doing X, that does nothing for the people who are situated where their authorities are perfectly able to X.

              [–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

              It could be that your actions attracted attention that put the spot light on your mail. It could be that your dealers actions put the spot light on the mail s/he was sending out. It could be that one of the dealers other customers did something that caused them to look back upstream and follow other packages.

              PO Box set up with a Fake ID. Too pricey to monitor something 24/7. I've been doing this for a long time, only the stupid ones get caught

              DPR and Nod weren't let down by the technologies they let themselves down.

              [–]firepacket 2 points3 points  (1 child)

              If any heat gets attracted to that po box and you're using a fake Id they will just arrest you when you go pickup the mail for identity theft

              [–][deleted] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

              You leave it there for weeks. When dealing in <1kg amounts they won't stake out a PO box for weeks

              [–]badgrl2 1 point2 points  (3 children)

              In the US random screens aren't the only chance of being caught. Dogs sniffed out several of Nod's packages (domestic as well as international)--double vacuum sealing does shit, not to mention that sometimes packages get ripped open on accident, revealing your drugs. You have to stay lucky 100% of the time, while the cops only have to get lucky once.
              Yes they aren't going to win the war on drugs, but does that stop cops from conducting buyer and seller stings for people involved in $10 crack and weed transactions every single day of the year?

              [–]emanking 0 points1 point  (1 child)

              If you read the complaint one of the hits from the dog turned out to just be money. Now besides the dog hitting on drugs left on money, I don't see how the dog was truly used as anything other than a scapegoat to look at packages legally.

              [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              Dogs are trained to detect money.

              [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              Double vacuum sealing would've done 'shit' if he would've done it properly. Dogs can't smell through vac. sealed. That's simple science. The smells starts steeping through after a few weeks. He most likely done it in a non-clean environment. Or didn't use multiple pairs of gloves. (Doesn't matter if you put it in 10 layers of vac sealed. If you touch the outside of the vac. with hands with drug residue on them. (Even drug residue humans can't see) - a dog will pick that up.

              So all you really have left is the package accidentally getting ripped. Or as I said, being stupid.

              And that doesn't matter if both the shipper and receiver were completely anonymous. Even if the shipper is LEA. It shouldn't matter - assume everyone you're dealing with is LE

              Now I'm not saying people getting a few grams of weed should be using the most sophisticated security methods and setting up PO boxes with fake IDs. But people making $40m a year certainly should. Personal users will get seized and a warning letter. There is 0 risk for them as the world is heading towards decriminalisation (at least for personal amounts)

              But the idiocracy shown by vendors is ludicrous if they've been caught.

              [–]FromThatOtherPlace 1 point2 points  (5 children)

              How are they getting the vendors? Are all the vendors comprimised from the SR bust? Or just certain ones

              [–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (4 children)

              Probably people being stupid and cashing out to their real bank accounts or something ridiculous like that.

              [–]FromThatOtherPlace 1 point2 points  (3 children)

              A vendor I knew of offered bitcoins for sale via his bank account. (no sticks no seeds) Bet he's fucked

              [–]bigflexy 4 points5 points  (2 children)

              Not illegal to trade bitcoins. But if he was selling drugs from the same vendor account, he's proper fucked now.

              [–]nowitassholeGreen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              Good, he was a thieving piece of shit too.

              Got banned 4-5 months ago though, so it might have been before LE had control of the server.

              [–]FromThatOtherPlace 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              Yep, he was. He ended up turning scammer too, so I hope they get him

              [–]ihatethekids 1 point2 points  (2 children)

              This morning on my walk into uni i saw a police 'tactical aid unit' van and about 10 police men raiding a house. I live in Manchester btw

              [–]BrionyB 1 point2 points  (1 child)

              There were multiple drug raids this morning in Manchester but they were unrelated to SR, they were to tackle street dealing. The SR arrests happened right after the DPR arrest last week.

              [–]ihatethekids 1 point2 points  (0 children)

              oh i see. it will be interesting to see how all of this plays out over the next few weeks.

              [–]Ne007 1 point2 points  (0 children)

              The US government will do anything to ensure their stranglehold on the drug trade.

              [–]al_eberia 2 points3 points  (0 children)

              Hopefully most large vendors will have cleaned house by now.

              [–]Niggabackstabber 2 points3 points  (0 children)

              Hide yo kids, hide yo wife

              [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

              It's bull shit proof is: "The National Crime Agency... said that “many more” arrests of users of Silk Road...were expected in the coming weeks." Warning dealers in advance so they can dispose of all drugs is irrational if they want a conviction. It only makes sense as a scare tactic to make people do this out of fear and never sell again.

              [–]BrionyB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              According to the Guardian media outlet, the National Crime Agency's "crass" motto is "We instill fear". LOL by what? Trying to take credit for the work the FBI in the US has carried out? Without US law enforcement the NCA/SOCA wouldn't have a clue.

              [–]tangled[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              Good point there, yes.

              [–]ClassyAssAssassin 0 points1 point  (3 children)

              Could the Manchester guys be TSCrew? They are the only group I know in Spain..

              [–]ClassyAssAssassin 10 points11 points  (1 child)

              Annnd I feel like a dumbass. Got Manchester confused with Madrid -_-

              You'd think as a soccer fan I would've noticed..

              [–]slento86 14 points15 points  (0 children)

              I can't work out if you're being serious or not.

              [–]FromAFarAwayLand 1 point2 points  (0 children)

              And so it begins.

              [–]AlertTrevor 0 points1 point  (8 children)

              Wonder what the offences were?

              [–]scrappy1850 13 points14 points  (5 children)

              I'm going to guess "selling drugs" and crimes relating to that.

              [–]AlertTrevor 0 points1 point  (4 children)

              No but I mean if they were buyers or sellers. Guessing sellers most likely.

              [–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (2 children)

              Telegraph is now saying the arrests were "on suspicion of supplying controlled drugs"

              Yeah, sellers seems most likely.

              [–]RuinsMoodWithDeadDad -4 points-3 points  (1 child)

              More likely buyers who ordered large quantities for resale. What quantity? Who knows maybe 10 grams +

              [–]CCNENCIOVICI 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              What the hell is that username!

              [–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

              Well they seized a million pounds ($1.5 million) from four people so that does seem rather likely.

              [–]MyCrotch 4 points5 points  (0 children)

              Selling drugs.

              SilkRoad didn't require vendors' addresses, but they could have been caught by:

              • buying large quantities of drugs via the road (presumption of dealing)
              • buying and selling using the same account

              In both cases it's likely a failure to use encryption would have got them.

              But you can't be sure - even if they encrypted, if they bought from a big dealer using PGP, that dealer could have been law enforcement. That would have been a good honey trap - sell drugs in dealer quantities, catch lots of dealers, send to prison.

              [–]tangled[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

              Telegraph is now saying "supply of controlled drugs" so sellers rather than buyers, I assume.

              [–]spacexj -1 points0 points  (1 child)

              australia is next

              [–]Davidoff1983 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

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