Senator Schumer pushes to shut down online drug marketplace.

Senator Charles Schumer is asking federal authorities to shut down a secretive narcotics market operated online with anonymous sales and untraceable currency.

I'm sure about 10 more popped up since this started. He also mentions Bitcoin. From what I understand the drug sites are on kind of the "open source" internet "Tor network?" and its very hard to shut down. Bitcoins are also open source and good luck at stopping them. If someone can explain further about the internet thing that would be great.

www.nbcnewyork.com...

Here is some information on how tor works:
www.torproject.org...

There are theories that it is compromised because it was developed by naval officers.

As for the site, it's just another cardersmaket all over again, there are always going to be sites circumventing the law and by bringing attention to them they do nothing more than promote the site for use. While the story argues for the site to be taken offline immediately, I'm sure this is probably a way to get stupid people to order so they can get the arrest number up.

reply to post by j35us


I think you gotta be pretty hardcore to chance sending drugs through the mail like that or receiving them.

FEDS be fishin, stay away good folks of ATS.

i think that is stupidly insane to buy any kind of drugs online

and while they maybe cheaper the fact is you never know what your getting.

since the dea already enforces this but a senator is making it a big issue

it is more likely is just another power grab by congress.

we dont need new laws we just need the ones already on the books enforced.

or just decriminalize them tax them and regulate them.

reply to post by mayabong


While these sites that sell drugs are giving the bitcoin idea a bad name, it's exactly what happens when you have complete anonymity online with a semi-centralized marketplace. Think of it as being able to use cash in the real world, except nobody can see your face so you can buy or sell anything you want.

As far as people buying things like this on the internet, well people never cease to amaze me. If they have the money.. then go ahead risk it.

I find it almost amusing how they plan to shut down this site when its on a completely random encrypted network. They could possibly find it and then what? Shut down that node? It will just move to another random location somewhere on the network and it will be only a matter of time before it starts back up again.

It's not like a regular domain name where you can go to www.whatever and they can have the registrar pull the domain.

I'm just watching from the sidelines as this whole thing plays out. It's rather amusing.

Originally posted by LOLZebra
reply to post by mayabong

 

I find it almost amusing how they plan to shut down this site when its on a completely random encrypted network. They could possibly find it and then what? Shut down that node? It will just move to another random location somewhere on the network and it will be only a matter of time before it starts back up again.

I'd guess their method would be less shutting down the domain right away (though I'm sure they're trying to tunnel to the owner as best they can) but more likely to cripple the safe and anonymous features of the site. To completely discredit the site and make people think twice about ordering I'd guess they would probably start off as a buyer, do a few deals slowly increasing in size either between trusted dealers or two dummy accounts to gain reputation, move onto dealing and keep an eye on the pick-up location to bag the individual on the other end (of course this could just be a courier) and hope to gain access to their site identity. Once they have that, build further reputation on their main accounts and begin using the apprehended accounts to make further deals and just try and expand one by one. Once someone gets caught after dealing with people trusted for a decent period of time on the site (at this point it says its only been up for a few months so its prime for infiltration), people will start questioning their ability to use anyone connected to it and go back to their other sources. It's pretty much their s.o.p. for site dismantling.

reply to post by LOLZebra


Yeah I'm also watching. I bought a few bitcoins (50 or so) last week and I'm seeing what happens. I'm just gonna hold on to them and also spread some wealth around to the vendors online too give the currency some strength. There are at least 3 people in my area who will meet me downtown and give me cash for them.

I didn't really invest with the intent on becoming rich from them, I invested cause I see it as a great way to bypass governments and central banks.

Guess we'll see what happens.

They aren't really cheaper through these sites. Usually, about 10-25% over street price, unless you get someone selling large bulk.

There have been many successful transactions. If you think about how many pieces of mail go through the USA everyday it really is pretty hard to find the needle in the haystack.

reply to post by j35us


Yeah they(dea) could sell drugs through the mail and gain reputation.. isn't that illegal in itself? Isn't that entrapment?
How many deals would they have to make before gaining reputation on the site, then they make a bust, and have to make a new seller account, or perhaps have multiple selling accounts going...
I could see the media news over that "new DEA method distributes drugs to multiple users"

Basically they would only be able to bust the small-time buyers unless they can somehow trace an envelope back to the originating city...

Any how do you pull a .onion domain offline? it's not like its a .org or .com
I bet I can get a .onion site hosted within the hour if I tried to.

reply to post by LOLZebra


Basically it is impossible in the USA for you to pull the entrapment card. They have to almost shove the drugs in your mouth and move your jaw while pouring water down your throat.

Just about everywhere else it is seen as entrapment. Not here ( USA ) though.

reply to post by LOLZebra


They could ship a gps tracker instead of drugs and use it to track the location of the package, just another option to avoid compromising the case.

As for taking the domain down, it would be very difficult but as I mentioned two of the developers were navy so I'm sure the dea is talking to them about it. Nothing in a computer is random so I'm sure there is a way to reverse the effects and find the system, it would be especially easy if the person hosting the domain was involved in sales on the site anyways. If they build up their member accounts they may be able to start dealing with that individual and do a similar tracking method on them. To be honest the DEA may already own the site and be using it in an attempt to trap people trying to buy large amounts. Similar to the aforementioned credit card sites, they actually took control of the site, changed the t.o.s. to allow for legal tracking and invasion of member accounts/computers and just kept it running while making claims that certain reputable members were federal to draw attention away from themselves.

Another good example of how technological advances makes us more free. And how those in power wish to tear them down.

Little do the masters know,. that pandora's box is already open. They can't stop the revolution. It is the natural order of things.

What isn't being talked about is the kind of drugs being sold.

More than likely, it isn't anything like pot, heroin or other opiads, coke, meth, etc. More than likely these are research chemicals and designer chemicals such as the 2c-x family and DO-x family. It could also be sites that sell the plants needed to create mescaline or '___'.

reply to post by mayabong

Maya, I started researching this yesterday. I will be building my mining rig soon. It looks like this is a great way to bypass the Fed's control of money but the crackdowns will be coming soon enough. Just like internet poker. I believe the rate is $16 for 1 bitcoin at today's rates.

reply to post by BillfromCovina


Wow cool, yeah I saw some videos of mining rigs some are amazing. People think that the early adopters are getting bitcoins for nothing. Actually it takes a huge investment of time and energy. Whoever thought of this bitcoin thing must be an alien.



Also this guy lays out his profits and thoughts after mining for 3 months. Very interesting.



I myself don't mine cause I have a crappy laptop and I hear it would take me 5 to 10 years to hit gold. I also have a 1 year old kid that would probably rip it to shreds when i'm not looking.

reply to post by BillfromCovina


It's actually just about $19. $18.90 to be exact.

Btw, you are better off joining a group of miners than going about it at your own.

Originally posted by SpectreDC
What isn't being talked about is the kind of drugs being sold.

More than likely, it isn't anything like pot, heroin or other opiads, coke, meth, etc. More than likely these are research chemicals and designer chemicals such as the 2c-x family and DO-x family. It could also be sites that sell the plants needed to create mescaline or '___'.

Pretty much all of it is sold on there.
Selling plants is legal. Who would bother to grow them when '___' is in practically all living things just in different concentrations. Sorry I just found this humorous.

As an Update:
As of today it seems that Silk Road is finally not showing its front page, but that doesn't mean it is down... because it is still loading.. But now it has 2 text boxes and a button. That's it. Hah. Maybe they made it a login system or are in the process of moving it somewhere else. last I know it was running off some cable host in germany.

Edit to add: BTC price: Last Price: 24.9889