14 DAY TRIAL // Silk Road's demise doesn't seem to have made much of a dent in the online drug trade and certainly not in the success of Bitcoins. Earlier this week, Silk Road 2.0 sprang into action. Meanwhile, Bitcoins are surging to dizzying heights and selling for record prices.
But the story of Silk Road, the online drug market place hidden away, or so it thought, on the dark (or deep) web, is far from over, especially since quite a few bizarre details came out after the arrest of the presumably dreaded Dread Pirate Roberts, the alleged alias of Ross Ulbricht, the owner of the site.
UIbricht was charged with a number of drug-related issues, but also with trying to murder a couple of former employees or people with links to the sites.
One of the would-be targets has been revealed as forty-seven-year-old Curtis Clark Green, who helped administer the site for a few months at the end of 2012 and beginning of 2013.
He says he became involved because he had an interest in Bitcoins and never cared much for the drugs that were trading on the site he was helping run. He also denies ever buying or selling any drugs via Silk Road.
That is, until he helped DPR secure a high-level drug deal. DPR agreed to sell $27,000 worth of cocaine to a dealer that in fact was an undercover agent. He sent that cocaine to the home of Curtis Clark Green.
Soon after, federal agents swooped in and arrested Green. They also revealed that DPR wanted him dead, so they set arranged a fake murder, to provide photos as evidence to DPR. Green isn't saying much, since he's got a lawsuit to worry about. But he did make a statement for Epic magazine, which you can read in full below. Epic also has more details on the inside happenings on Silk Road.
"I was an employee of Silk Road from approximately November 2012 until January 2013. I got involved in SR because I was interested in Bitcoin and SR was the biggest market place for Bitcoin. I also had an interest in harm reduction related to drug use," he told Joshua Davis.
"Initially I just chatted on the forum, and that led to DPR hiring me to work for SR. I was basically employed as a customer service rep, assisting people to use the site. I never used illegal drugs and I never intended to be directly involved in illegal drug deals," he said.
"In January 2013 federal agents stormed into my home and arrested me on drug charges. According to federal agents, DPR paid an undercover agent to murder me. The agents took photos as they faked my murder. I did not know the identity of DPR or any other user of SR. I never stole from DPR, SR or any SR users. On the advice of my attorney, I cannot give any further details, as I still face serious federal charges," he added.