New York: The mastermind behind Silk Road, the online black market drug bazaar, has been jailed for life without the possibility of parole in a landmark case in New York.
Ross Ulbricht, 31, a former boy scout with degrees in physics and chemistry, will die in prison for running what has been called the “Amazon of drug dealing”. Judge Katherine Forrest told him: “You were captain of the ship. It was a carefully planned life’s work. It was your opus. “You are no better a person than any other drug dealer. What you did in Silk Road was terribly destructive to our social fabric.”
Ross Ulbricht aka Dread Pirate Roberts the head of Silk Road website Ulbricht, a Californian, was found guilty in February on seven charges including drug trafficking, computer hacking and money laundering. He received two life sentences, plus other terms of five years, 15 years and 20 years to be served concurrently. Silk Road facilitated the buying and selling of drugs worth $213 million (£139 million), including heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines, by thousands of dealers and users around the world over a two year period.
Prosecutors linked drugs sold through Silk Road to the deaths of six people. As the parents of two victims addressed the court Ulbricht broke down in tears. He carried photographs of the victims with him. He claimed that Silk Road had been a libertarian attempt to create a free, digital “world without restrictions” but admitted it descended into a “convenient way for drug users to satisfy their addictions”.
