Silk Road forums
Market => Rumor mill => Topic started by: ananas_xpress on July 25, 2013, 07:10 pm
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Clearnet link*******
http://www.news10.net/news/article/251775/2/Cross-county-drug-ring-using-dark-Internet-site-busted-by-feds
SACRAMENTO, CA - An alleged drug ring using a little known corner of the Internet to sell California marijuana to at least 16 other states was broken up by federal investigators in recent months.
Matthew Gillum, 29, of Loomis, and Jolene Chan, of Roseville are each facing charges of distribution of marijuana, unlawful use of the mail, conspiracy to distribute marijuana and avoiding currency reporting transaction requirements.
The investigation began last August when Sacramento postal inspectors detected a number of Express Mail packages sent into the Sacramento region containing large sums of U.S. currency. They were sent to area Post Office Boxes and addressed to fictitious businesses with names like Granite Cove Property Management and American Sound Concepts.
In December 2012, a "controlled delivery" from Granite Bay to New Jersey by postal inspectors led to a recipient who cooperated with authorities. He explained that he had bought the marijuana from the website Silk Road, using a fictitious name.
Silk Road requires a special browser to access and features a range of illegal drugs for sale. Buyers can contact sellers using encrypted email. Purchases on the site must be made using bitcoins, a digital currency that must be paid for in dollars to use.
The recipient of the marijuana in New Jersey told inspectors he had sent $12,000 to Gillum for 5 pounds of pot using encrypted emails.
On March 20, agents moved in on Gillum's alleged courier at the Rocklin Post Office on Pacific Avenue. The courier was interviewed and agreed to cooperate with investigators.
Later that day, agents served a search warrant at the courier's house, where they found Gillum leaving with a backpack containing over $7,000. He was released, but later in the day, a search warrant was served at Gillum's home in the 3300 block of Penryn Road in Loomis, where he was seen coming around his home in his underwear.
Agents noticed he was wet and determined he'd been trying to get rid of evidence in a creek beside his home.
Another search warrant was served the same day at the Roseville home of Jolene Chan, who investigators allege was the person who processed and packaged marijuana for Gillum.
Agents estimate the pair were able to handle up to 400 transactions using Silk Road.
Gillum allegedly ran a sophisticated operation, including making his accomplices take courses in counter-surveillance. Before he was arrested, Gillum managed to alert other accomplices he had been detained and his house was searched by law enforcement.
At the same time, Gillum was apparently careless enough to explain to a buyer on a Facebook post, quote, "Ya I know you live across the country bro, it's not like I could sell weed in Cali. Everyone grows it here. If I know what you want, I can have it dropped for you."
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So this guy obviously knows about bitcoin, yet he is having large sums of cash mailed to him? And he is posting about selling drugs on Facebook? WTF >:(
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hmm sounds like he was part of group of sellers maybe he was a low hanging fruit, if he really posed that on his Facebook, he asked for it tho.
Still sucks!
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This idiot deserves to get caught.
He got "caught" because he was NOT USING SR or BITCOINS!
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got to assume that LE is going to be giving more attention to post office shipments - too bad it's not known what his SR name was, at least SR could contact his customers with a link to the story
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Can't decide whether to laugh or cringe.
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where he was seen coming around his home in his underwear.
Lets hope his mug shot is as sexy as Casey Jones ;D
Sucks but vendors like him deserve to get caught in fairness, Just a pity it will be used to scare people away from ordering here in future
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Here is another story---
Clearnet link:
Read more: http://www.kcra.com/news/mailorder-marijuana-postal-inspectors-link-operation-to-sac-region/-/11797728/21156348/-/nv5v6u/-/index.html#ixzz2a5YGG439
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) —Postal inspectors have busted a marijuana mail-order operation in the Sacramento region, according to court documents uncovered Wednesday.
A federal criminal complaint revealed that postal inspectors found more than 400 Express Mail packages -- with money inside -- sent from 16 states to the Sacramento area.
The complaint indicates these packages were part of a large drug-trafficking operation that shipped marijuana out of California.
Two people were arrested in connection with the operation: Matthew Gillum, of Loomis, and Jolene Chan, of Roseville.
Gillum and Chan face charges of marijuana distribution, the unlawful use of mail, and avoiding currency transaction reporting.
The complaint shows the two were allegedly using P.O. boxes in Rocklin, Orangevale and Loomis to receive the payments for the drugs.
Chan's neighbors told KCRA 3 they saw agents at her home, removing what looked like evidence.
"I am really shocked," Sharon Moore said. "I’ve never seen anything like that in this neighborhood at all."
Postal inspectors would not discuss the case, but said every year, they catch people trying to use the mail system to deliver drugs and receive payments.
"Last year, 2,299 people were arrested and $20.2 million were seized for illegal drug operations," said Jeff Fitch, a U.S. postal inspector.
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So as you can see...this bust has NOTHING to do with Silk Road.
These guys were getting payments in the mail and sending them drugs.
The title of this thread should read " Look what happened when this dumb fuck did not use SR and btc"
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Fuck the kid in Jersey who snitched. Anyone want to do a discovery search...
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Vendors getting caught is bad for SR regardless. It further shows the scope and seriousness of an issue silk road is for law enforcement.
Even if these guys were idiots and "deserved" to get caught via being sloppy, this is just another nail in the coffin for the eventual full blown war against sites like silkroad and online drug sales.
As sloppy as these guys may have been, it is still bad for the community, and everyone, including buyers, should take note as this is more example of what not to do in the case of controlled deliveries and vending practices.
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Vendors getting caught is bad for SR regardless. It further shows the scope and seriousness of an issue silk road is for law enforcement.
Even if these guys were idiots and "deserved" to get caught via being sloppy, this is just another nail in the coffin for the eventual full blown war against sites like silkroad and online drug sales.
As sloppy as these guys may have been, it is still bad for the community, and everyone, including buyers, should take note as this is more example of what not to do in the case of controlled deliveries and vending practices.
If the vendor was abiding by the Road protocol he would have been fine. The post offices have dogs specifically trained to hit on cash. Not to mention all of the fake business names used to open up PO boxes...I have herd stories that larger bills have RFID tags inserted which can be scanned from a distance?Better use tinfoil if this is indeed true.
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Vendors getting caught is bad for SR regardless. It further shows the scope and seriousness of an issue silk road is for law enforcement.
Even if these guys were idiots and "deserved" to get caught via being sloppy, this is just another nail in the coffin for the eventual full blown war against sites like silkroad and online drug sales.
As sloppy as these guys may have been, it is still bad for the community, and everyone, including buyers, should take note as this is more example of what not to do in the case of controlled deliveries and vending practices.
Your DEAD FUCKING WRONG and could not be further off.
There is no nails and there is no coffin.
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They were probably using both SR and encrypted mail for transactions. (just wanted to subscribe for further info)
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subbed. STOP SNITCHING! For real people... come on.
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Maybe the guy was running a bitcoin exchange to cash out all of the bitcoins he has from profit of the weed sales. Many vendors have two accounts just for this purpose. They were using the same post office to mail out of, so of course cops knew when and where based on patterns.
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Vendors getting caught is bad for SR regardless. It further shows the scope and seriousness of an issue silk road is for law enforcement.
Even if these guys were idiots and "deserved" to get caught via being sloppy, this is just another nail in the coffin for the eventual full blown war against sites like silkroad and online drug sales.
As sloppy as these guys may have been, it is still bad for the community, and everyone, including buyers, should take note as this is more example of what not to do in the case of controlled deliveries and vending practices.
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where he was seen coming around his home in his underwear.
Lets hope his mug shot is as sexy as Casey Jones ;D
Sucks but vendors like him deserve to get caught in fairness, Just a pity it will be used to scare people away from ordering here in future
If he didn't break anyone's leg or pick their pocket then he doesn't deserve to get jammed up! What's fair about that!?
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if youre carrying around large amounts of cash or shipping them you really need to consider it more or less a Schedule I drug because that is immediately the conclusion LE jumps to. Even if you just won a huge amount at a casino or something, if youre carrying around more than, hmmmm probably like 5,000 dollars without an irrefutable reason to be carrying it on you, you're gonna have a bad time.
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My guess is this.
1.Guy was running a bitcoin exchange and selling weed via SR from two separate vendor accounts.
2.Started getting one too many express packages full of cash. Someone followed him from his cash drop, because of course law enforcement are going to look into it.
3. Police/post find out hes connected to several packages mailed daily via an investigation started from the express cash packages
4. Intercept a package because they watched it be dropped off and knew it was connected to whoever was getting tons of express orders full of cash, and wanted to know just what the fuck was going on.
5. They find 5 pounds of weed and order the cake for the celebration party before doing a CD on the guy buying the weed, who snitched out and spilled the beans about SR.
6. get warrants based on evidence and arrest.
What vendor who was doing mail in cash for bitcoins gone suddenly cold as of late?
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sourdieselman?
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My guess is this.
1.Guy was running a bitcoin exchange and selling weed via SR from two separate vendor accounts.
2.Started getting one too many express packages full of cash. Someone followed him from his cash drop, because of course law enforcement are going to look into it.
3. Police/post find out hes connected to several packages mailed daily via an investigation started from the express cash packages
4. Intercept a package because they watched it be dropped off and knew it was connected to whoever was getting tons of express orders full of cash, and wanted to know just what the fuck was going on.
5. They find 5 pounds of weed and order the cake for the celebration party before doing a CD on the guy buying the weed, who snitched out and spilled the beans about SR.
6. get warrants based on evidence and arrest.
What vendor who was doing mail in cash for bitcoins gone suddenly cold as of late?
Ouch, I wonder what kind of sentence he's looking at? Conspiracy and all.
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I get disgusted when people say that somebody like this deserves to get caught. in the US our laws are not reasonable, our justice system is unjust, and our punishments are severe. Even a few days in jail is hell, and spending years in jail is much worse. Then when you get out you're blacklisted by society so good luck getting a proper job.
This guy took a lot of precautions that few others on SR take and now his life is basically over.
I'm thankful to the vendors on SR that take a risks for the benefit of all of us.
To law enforcement I'll say this: the war on drugs is doing more damage than drugs. I encourage you to disrupt the war rather than ruin more lives.
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SDM.
100% sure.
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My guess is this.
1.Guy was running a bitcoin exchange and selling weed via SR from two separate vendor accounts.
2.Started getting one too many express packages full of cash. Someone followed him from his cash drop, because of course law enforcement are going to look into it.
3. Police/post find out hes connected to several packages mailed daily via an investigation started from the express cash packages
4. Intercept a package because they watched it be dropped off and knew it was connected to whoever was getting tons of express orders full of cash, and wanted to know just what the fuck was going on.
5. They find 5 pounds of weed and order the cake for the celebration party before doing a CD on the guy buying the weed, who snitched out and spilled the beans about SR.
6. get warrants based on evidence and arrest.
What vendor who was doing mail in cash for bitcoins gone suddenly cold as of late?
Ouch, I wonder what kind of sentence he's looking at? Conspiracy and all.
I'm not sure if thats a jab or your being serious. Sorry, but no one is dumb enough to accept several cash orders a day via express, and then sell drugs, all out in the open. I REFUSE to believe that a SR vendor was accepting cash orders via mail several times a day from customers. His account would be shut down so fast. He was not accepting cash in mail for weed. Sorry.
If he was asking customers "just mail me the cash man" someone would have reported him and he would have been taken care of. Its one thing to FE scam hundreds of people for a few weeks, its another thing to dip into SR's bottom line. When you get cash mailed to you, your cutting out SR. They don't play with that.
The news article said he made his courier "take counter surveillance" classes (lol pdf off bmr.) He had two people working for him. Its apparent he was taking this serious. He just got sloppy.
Many vendors with these alt accounts think they are safe because they can say "im just trading bitcoins" until the watch you and intercept your shit.
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SDM.
100% sure.
Was SDM accepting shipments of cash for bitcoin? I mean he using one account to do all of this from?
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My guess is this.
1.Guy was running a bitcoin exchange and selling weed via SR from two separate vendor accounts.
2.Started getting one too many express packages full of cash. Someone followed him from his cash drop, because of course law enforcement are going to look into it.
3. Police/post find out hes connected to several packages mailed daily via an investigation started from the express cash packages
4. Intercept a package because they watched it be dropped off and knew it was connected to whoever was getting tons of express orders full of cash, and wanted to know just what the fuck was going on.
5. They find 5 pounds of weed and order the cake for the celebration party before doing a CD on the guy buying the weed, who snitched out and spilled the beans about SR.
6. get warrants based on evidence and arrest.
What vendor who was doing mail in cash for bitcoins gone suddenly cold as of late?
Ouch, I wonder what kind of sentence he's looking at? Conspiracy and all.
I'm not sure if thats a jab or your being serious. Sorry, but no one is dumb enough to accept several cash orders a day via express, and then sell drugs, all out in the open. I REFUSE to believe that a SR vendor was accepting cash orders via mail several times a day from customers. His account would be shut down so fast. If he was asking customers "just mail me the cash man" someone would have reported him and he would have been taken care of. Its one thing to FE scam hundreds of people for a few weeks, its another thing to dip into SR's bottom line. When you get cash mailed to you, your cutting out SR. They don't play with that.
The news article said he made his courier "take counter surveillance" classes (lol pdf off bmr.) He had two people working for him. Its apparent he was taking this serious. He just got sloppy.
Many vendors with these alt accounts think they are safe because they can say "im just trading bitcoins" until the watch you and intercept your shit.
I, personally, can confirm this is a previous SR vendor with the initials SDM. I can confirm this because I recognize these fake business names. Let's just say I would have more money right now if SDM didn't get busted last Sep/Oct.
Yes, SDM was accepting cash for BTC. He then left the SR where he continued via tormail and accepted cash payment.
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My guess is this.
1.Guy was running a bitcoin exchange and selling weed via SR from two separate vendor accounts.
2.Started getting one too many express packages full of cash. Someone followed him from his cash drop, because of course law enforcement are going to look into it.
3. Police/post find out hes connected to several packages mailed daily via an investigation started from the express cash packages
4. Intercept a package because they watched it be dropped off and knew it was connected to whoever was getting tons of express orders full of cash, and wanted to know just what the fuck was going on.
5. They find 5 pounds of weed and order the cake for the celebration party before doing a CD on the guy buying the weed, who snitched out and spilled the beans about SR.
6. get warrants based on evidence and arrest.
What vendor who was doing mail in cash for bitcoins gone suddenly cold as of late?
Ouch, I wonder what kind of sentence he's looking at? Conspiracy and all.
I'm not sure if thats a jab or your being serious. Sorry, but no one is dumb enough to accept several cash orders a day via express, and then sell drugs, all out in the open. I REFUSE to believe that a SR vendor was accepting cash orders via mail several times a day from customers. His account would be shut down so fast. If he was asking customers "just mail me the cash man" someone would have reported him and he would have been taken care of. Its one thing to FE scam hundreds of people for a few weeks, its another thing to dip into SR's bottom line. When you get cash mailed to you, your cutting out SR. They don't play with that.
The news article said he made his courier "take counter surveillance" classes (lol pdf off bmr.) He had two people working for him. Its apparent he was taking this serious. He just got sloppy.
Many vendors with these alt accounts think they are safe because they can say "im just trading bitcoins" until the watch you and intercept your shit.
I, personally, can confirm this is a previous SR vendor with the initials SDM. I can confirm this because I recognize these fake business names. Let's just say I would have more money right now if SDM didn't get busted last Sep/Oct.
Yes, SDM was accepting cash for BTC. He then left the SR where he continued via tormail and accepted cash payment.
I stand corrected. God damn what a idiot. Why leave the safety net of SR?
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I stand corrected. God damn what a idiot. Why leave the safety net of SR?
Believe it or not when he left he told me it was because SR was not secure enough....
After my little trouble I asked him if he had any CD's and he said "yeah but only on packs of like 100"
I just stared at my monitor and stopped talking to him after that. Dude is clearly careless and deserves what he got.
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I stand corrected. God damn what a idiot. Why leave the safety net of SR?
Believe it or not when he left he told me it was because SR was not secure enough....
After my little trouble I asked him if he had any CD's and he said "yeah but only on packs of like 100"
I just stared at my monitor and stopped talking to him after that. Dude is clearly careless and deserves what he got.
I bet he got tired of the "fee's." This is what happens when you get greedy and start being a cry baby about the "fee's." I bet SR's fee's are a whole lot less than a lawyer. "Naw brah im like a digital criminal master mind I won't get caught. I'm Tony Montana of the deep web."
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I stand corrected. God damn what a idiot. Why leave the safety net of SR?
Believe it or not when he left he told me it was because SR was not secure enough....
... Wow.
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I get disgusted when people say that somebody like this deserves to get caught. in the US our laws are not reasonable, our justice system is unjust, and our punishments are severe. Even a few days in jail is hell, and spending years in jail is much worse. Then when you get out you're blacklisted by society so good luck getting a proper job.
This guy took a lot of precautions that few others on SR take and now his life is basically over.
I'm thankful to the vendors on SR that take a chance to delivery us recreational drugs.
To law enforcement I'll say this: the war on drugs is doing more damage than drugs. I encourage you to disrupt the war rather than ruin more lives.
Right on man.
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Jail is probably most fucked up of all when it comes to it, you will be gladiator, even if you look like Arnie, trust me, at least prison has a degree of a code of honor.
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Maybe the guy was running a bitcoin exchange to cash out all of the bitcoins he has from profit of the weed sales. Many vendors have two accounts just for this purpose. They were using the same post office to mail out of, so of course cops knew when and where based on patterns.
One vendor I know sells bulk weed and coke AND sells BTC for cash in the mail. I warned him but he doesn't listen.
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Jail is probably most fucked up of all when it comes to it, you will be gladiator, even if you look like Arnie, trust me, at least prison has a degree of a code of honor.
Take it from someone who knows. Jail (the place you are before sentencing) is full of young kids who got picked up for a ouch of weed and need to prove something, so they try and fight and find reasons to feel disrespected.
Prison is mostly full of dudes who just want to do time. They are here for a good period, so lets all just relax, ok? Hey man, relax. Brother, last time, relax. *SHANK IN YOUR FUCKING STOMACH*. "Alright, lets go watch some tv."
This is American prison. Sure you got your crazy fucks, but generally those type of dudes are just entertaining.
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Maybe the guy was running a bitcoin exchange to cash out all of the bitcoins he has from profit of the weed sales. Many vendors have two accounts just for this purpose. They were using the same post office to mail out of, so of course cops knew when and where based on patterns.
One vendor I know sells bulk weed and coke AND sells BTC for cash in the mail. I warned him but he doesn't listen.
It's easy to criticize these vendors, but tell me, how would you suggest vendors convert their bitcoins back into spendable cash? It's a huge problem for vendors. If anyone knows an anonymous and safe way for a vendor to cash out of bitcoins, PM me and tell me. It's a much bigger problem than many buyers on SR realize. Buyers are always complaining about the difficulties and effort required to buy bitcoins. Sellling bitcoins without either leaving a paper trail a mile wide or having to resort to identity theft (another can of worms) is a problem I haven't solved yet. SR has been great to me, but i have seriously considered quitting SR because of this huge problem.
Jack
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I just stared at my monitor and stopped talking to him after that. Dude is clearly careless and deserves what he got.
NOBODY deserve to get fuck by criminals with government excuse! NOBODY that do non-violent crime.
Sound careless and bad decision but NOT deserve get caught.
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Who snitched?
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Maybe the guy was running a bitcoin exchange to cash out all of the bitcoins he has from profit of the weed sales. Many vendors have two accounts just for this purpose. They were using the same post office to mail out of, so of course cops knew when and where based on patterns.
One vendor I know sells bulk weed and coke AND sells BTC for cash in the mail. I warned him but he doesn't listen.
It's easy to criticize these vendors, but tell me, how would you suggest vendors convert their bitcoins back into spendable cash? It's a huge problem for vendors. If anyone knows an anonymous and safe way for a vendor to cash out of bitcoins, PM me and tell me. It's a much bigger problem than many buyers on SR realize. Buyers are always complaining about the difficulties and effort required to buy bitcoins. Sellling bitcoins without either leaving a paper trail a mile wide or having to resort to identity theft (another can of worms) is a problem I haven't solved yet. SR has been great to me, but i have seriously considered quitting SR because of this huge problem.
Jack
Yeah man, fuck bitcoins and their god damn paper trail! Have you considered paypal?
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Who snitched?
Seem like everybody latley!?! :o
I just stared at my monitor and stopped talking to him after that. Dude is clearly careless and deserves what he got.
NOBODY deserve to get fuck by criminals with government excuse! NOBODY that do non-violent crime.
Sound careless and bad decision but NOT deserve get caught.
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Maybe the guy was running a bitcoin exchange to cash out all of the bitcoins he has from profit of the weed sales. Many vendors have two accounts just for this purpose. They were using the same post office to mail out of, so of course cops knew when and where based on patterns.
Yeah that's what I was thinking.
The thing about SR is you can't snitch, or you can but you're snitching on yourself. Are they saying that the dude in jersey used SR, but actually knew the seller's name? This doesn't really make sense to me.
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yeah i was confused how they mention of the silk road even got in there. it seemed very out of place since these guys were mailing money, and not using anything that has to do with SR. it looked added just to make a statement than it being used. very phishy to me
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Sub
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Who snitched?
Seem like everybody latley!?! :o
Well shit I can't kill everyone..
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ha, after reading the first post, SDM is who came to my mind. funny others did too.
SR didn't have anything to do with this. SDM was doing mail order long before SR came around. So it was just one of those "matter of time" things. I remember him talking about how unsecure SR was too. After he burned me with that bunk batch of hash, I didn't want to do biz with him anymore. I remember when I complained to him, he threatened to "...cut me off." I laughed at that because there are so many quality vendors here. Good riddance in my opinion.