To be sentenced for conspiracy to distribute narcotics

Oct 5, 2018 20:52 GMT  ·  By

Irish man Gary Davis (also known as Libertas), a former site administrator and forum moderator for the Silk Road dark web marketplace, pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics which should bring him a maximum of 20 years of jail time according to a US Department of Justice press release.

Silk Road was an online darknet market designed as an anonymous platform for thousands of users to sell and buy illegal drugs and some other illicit services and goods.

The Silk Road marketplace was launched in February 2011, and it was shut down and its founder Ross Ulbricht arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in October 2013.

One month later, in November 2013 the former admins of Silk Road opened another darknet market dubbed Silk Road 2.0, which was also shut down one year later during Operation Onymous.

Silk Road's founder was sentenced by the U.S. Federal Court in Manhattan to life in prison after being convicted on multiple counts related to the dark web marketplace.

Gary Davis aka Libertas was deported from Ireland following a joint FBI, DHS, and DEA investigation

Gary Davis, one of Silk Road's forum moderators and site administrators, pleaded guilty before United States District Judge Jesse M. Furman following its extradition from Ireland to one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics.

As detailed in DOJ's press release, Silk Road's admins were in charge of responding to customer inquiries, as well as solving disputes between vendors and buyers.

The forum moderators were the ones keeping an eye on all discussions in the website's forum, helping out users who needed help using the drug exchange platform, and keeping Ulbricht and the site admins informed about any issues reported by users.

Gary Davis served both as a site admin and as a forum moderator, and he received a weekly salary for his services fro Silk Road's founder.

Davis sentence will be announced by Judge Furman January 17, 2019, at 3:30 p.m. and it can be up to a maximum of 20 years in prison given the one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics.