Silk Road website taken down by FBI

Silk Road website, also known as eBay for drugs, or Amazon.com for illegal drugs, was taken down, on 2 October 2013, by FBI.

Silk Road was founded in February 2011. On June 1st, Gawker did a profile story on the site, which led to "internet buzz" and an increase in website traffic. On June 2011 U.S. Senator Charles Schumer asked federal law enforcement authorities such as the DEA and Department of Justice to shut down the website. Authorities seized the domain on October 2, 2013 as part of the arrest of the site's alleged owner.

In February 2013, an Australian cocaine and MDMA dealer became the first person to be convicted of crimes directly related to Silk Road after authorities intercepted drugs he was importing through the mail, searched his premises, and discovered his Silk Road alias in an image file on his personal computer. Australian police and the DEA have targeted Silk Road users and made arrests, though with limited success at reaching convictions.

On 1 May 2013, Silk Road was taken down for a short period of time by a sustained DDoS attack.

On 2 October 2013, Silk Road was seized by the FBI.

Ross William Ulbricht, 29, who allegedly operated the site as “Dread Pirate Roberts,” was charged with narcotics trafficking conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.

The brazen site provided an international platform for drug dealers around the world to market a cornucopia of wares, expanding their empires beyond the corner drug stops and back alleys where they normally operated. Buyers and sellers could access the site only through the Tor anonymizing service and conducted transactions in Bitcoin to further conceal their identity.