Shining light on the dark net (The Times article about Silk Road Gary Davis)

Source: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/ireland/shining-light-on-the-dark-net-rt2fkzs5r

There is a stupid register-paywall-like page so here is the content of the article.

Shining light on the dark net

How did a computer nut from Wicklow end up facing a US trial on charges of drug dealing, money laundering and hacking, ask John Mooney and Aaron Rogan

The timing of the raid was crucial. Gardai had kept the target of their operation under surveillance for weeks but the detectives knew they needed to catch him online, preferably logged onto his laptop.

Permission to "knock" the target's house was given at 8pm on December 20, 2013, when the search team were notified that Libertas, the administrator of a website that sold drugs and contraband, was chatting live on a message board.

Once the signal was given, a detective knocked on the front door of the semi-detached house which 28-year-old Gary Davis shared with his unsuspecting parents in the village of Kilpedder, Co Wicklow. When it was answered, the search team swarmed in. As had been rehearsed many times, one officer sprinted up the stairs and burst into an unlocked bedroom where he found a startled Davis sitting on his bed.

At precisely the same time, special agents from the FBI forced their way into the home of Andrew Michael Jones in Norfolk, Virginia. A specialist team from the Australian Federal Police also knocked down the door of an apartment rented by Peter Nash, a local nurse.

The co-ordinated raids were part of an international police investigation into the people who ran Silk Road, a now defunct website that allowed users to sell illegal goods anonymously on the so-called dark net. The website offered complete anonymity. Payments were made using the encrypted digital currency bitcoins.

Davis, Jones and Nash were all suspected of being key administrators of the marketplace, known as the Amazon.com for drugs. Davis had allegedly been known as Libertas and dealt with everything from vendor queries to disputes with customers. Jones's alleged pseudonym was Inigo, and Nash's Samesamebutdifferent.

In the hours following the raid, Davis, a self-confessed computer obsessive, stayed sitting on his bed while the gardai's computer crime investigation unit questioned him, copied data from his laptop, and bagged up electronic wallets which held an estimated €180,000 in bitcoins. Davis claimed he had earned it through smart investing, but he was unemployed.

Davis did not appear perturbed. When the gardai asked him to log in on his laptop, he said he could not remember his password, but did offer to help by producing a Samsung tablet they had not found -- a badly wrapped present for a girlfriend.

Davis was formally arrested two weeks later and brought before the High Court on foot of an extradition warrant issued by US authorities. He challenged this on the grounds that he suffered from Asperger's syndrome and would not receive proper care if imprisoned in America. The Court of Criminal Appeal rejected his argument last Tuesday, and ordered that he be taken into custody and handed over to the FBI.

Davis now faces a trial in New York for various offences, including conspiracy to supply drugs, money laundering and computer hacking. If convicted, he could end up serving life. So how did a techie from Wicklow end up allegedly helping to run a digital enterprise which allowed drugs worth millions to be bought and sold all over the world?

Silk Road was the most sophisticated and extensive online marketplace for drugs on the internet. It operated from the dark net, and was accessible only through Tor, an anonymous web browser that routes traffic through encryption software so users cannot be traced. Drugs bought on Silk Road were dispatched by post or courier.

Its administrators prided themselves on security and reliability. The website allowed vendors to upload photographs and description of their products, and customers to post product reviews. It had a reputation as a "go to" place for everything to do with crime, computer hacking, fraud and identity theft. It even offered contact details for hitmen.

As drugs were sold online, there was no threat of violence as purchasers did not meet dealers face to face. The website even posted information from a doctor who gave advice on dosages, side effects and contamination. The FBI estimated the project generated almost $1bn (€800m) in turnover in less than two years.

Silk Road was founded by Ross William Ulbricht, a 32-year-old science graduate and entrepreneur who lived in a shared flat in San Francisco. The site was shut down in October 2013 after his arrest in a public library as he was working on his laptop.

An undercover agent grabbed the computer as Ulbricht was online, while he was distracted by a female agent. Ulbricht was sentenced to life imprisonment in May 2015. He had been known online as Dread Pirate Roberts, a character in the film The Princess Bride who passed on his name and identity to a younger pirate.

Paul Ennis, a UCD professor in management information systems who specialises in the dark net, said Silk Road was more than just a website where contraband was traded. He described the users as "crypto-libertarians", while admitting the term was difficult to define.

"The best way to think of them is as people who believe the technology of encryption is a means to ensure personal liberty, most often meaning [avoiding] interference from the state," said Ennis. "Another way to think of them is as sophisticated digital anarchists, who put their faith in writing code as a political act instead of street activism. Unlike most political activists, they are quite individualist, and prize not being interfered with above everything else. This group sees the war on drugs as futile, and the state as the most violent actor. They don't accept that drugs should be illegal, believing everyone should be allowed to use whatever substance they want."

Davis appears to have been recruited by Ulbricht after he joined the website and openly supported Dread Pirate Robert's views on politics and the drugs trade. Davis allegedly used the name Libertas to administrate the site. In return, Ulbricht paid him $1,500 a week in bitcoins.

Ennis emphasised that he did not know whether Davis was Libertas, but said the administrator was highly respected. "He was someone who was liked by the website's users, and seen as a fair moderator," he added.

The FBI and the gardai do not believe Davis ever met Ulbricht. The two allegedly communicated using encrypted messaging systems. According to evidence extracted from laptops, they discussed everything from politics, drugs and how to expand the website. Ulbricht used his local library while Davis operated from his parents' home, it is claimed.

Like Ulbricht, Libertas regularly posted polemics, manifestos and statements criticising law-enforcement agencies and government policies on drugs. One of these went viral after Ulbricht was arrested.

"While this is devastating to me personally on so many levels, and I will not be commenting on the arrest of any person portrayed by the media as Dread Pirate Roberts, it serves to strengthen my resolve to fight the hands of law enforcement that are committed to strangling personal freedom from our bodies, demonstrating a lack of conscience and justice on their part in the process," the post said.

"They will stop at nothing to enforce the unjust laws created and maintained by the societal and governmental framework within which they operate, and the actions of one persona, the Dread Pirate Roberts, has managed to stymie their efforts for 2½ years."

He urged followers to "fight these agents of oppression" and claimed Silk Road had shown the idea of a free market worked well. Libertas concluded by saying he believed the community would "no doubt regroup elsewhere". The FBI believes that at the time of his arrest, Davis was about to take control of Silk Road.

How certain are the authorities that Davis is Libertas, though? Before his arrest, Davis was put under surveillance by gardai who monitored his daily movements, routine and payments. He was even watched taking a dog to see the vet. In an online discussion, Libertas made reference to having just taken his dog to a vet.

Lyn Ulbricht, who is running a campaign to have her son Ross released, called the decision to extradite Davis "terribly wrong". "The Silk Road investigation and case is riddled with corruption and tainted evidence," she said. "Not only are two US federal agents who were at the core of the investigation, now in prison for corruption, but recently proof of tampered evidence and another corrupt agent were found by Ross's lawyers. To extradite Davis from his own country and try him in the US -- where sentences are draconian -- in a case this questionable is terribly wrong.

"I do not understand why my country, and particularly the Southern District of New York, has appointed itself policeman to the world. In adFdition to the question of the morality of the failed drug war, the US taxpayer is funding the incarceration of non-Americans, arrested outside the US, which is fiscally disastrous and part of an oppressive criminal justice system."

Ulbricht said her campaign would not be donating funds to help pay for lawyers to defend Davis, however.

Curtis Green, a former Silk Road moderator who used the names Flush and Chronicpain, has asked why the Silk Road community is not doing more to help Davis. "Why doesn't this guy get the same love as DPR [Dread Pirate Roberts]? He faces the time," tweeted Green.

Davis is expected to stand trial in New York later this year. It is unclear whether he will plead guilty or contest the charges, but gardai believe his activities have encouraged others. The force's Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau has already met young men who are using the internet to sell and distribute illegal drugs.

One recent case involved two men who supplied LSD to people in 27 countries from an office on the South Circular Road in Dublin. Like Libertas, they received crypto-currency which they deposited in offshore accounts. In court, one garda described their activities as the "modern era of drug dealing".


Comments


[2 Points] None:

Nice to see you around. Thought you moved on.


[2 Points] kameerem:

its scary how helpless you are if a country deem you as an enemy.


[1 Points] woowhohoo:

Who were the Dublin LSD vendors that got popped?


[1 Points] ciphersexual:

The FBI believes that at the time of his arrest, Davis was about to take control of Silk Road.

That's a new one, I think. It suggests that DPR2 would have handed control of Silk Road 2 to Libertas instead of Benthall?