8 Users of Silk Road Arrested, 'Many More To Come' 318
An anonymous reader writes "Last week authorities shut down Silk Road, an online black market that made use of Tor to hide activity. They also arrested the site's primary operator, Ross Ulbricht, and seized his possessions. Now, an AP report indicates at least 8 more arrests have been made on people suspected to have sold drugs through the site. Four of the arrests happened in the U.K., two were in the U.S. and two were in Sweden. It looks like they're gearing up for more arrests, as well. Keith Bristow of Britain's National Crime Agency said, 'These latest arrests are just the start; there are many more to come.' Authorities are reportedly mining the site's customer review system, which contains months worth of transaction data, for further leads."
Re:Crime (Score:5, Insightful)
It doesn't pay, but being in some prisons is better than working minimum wage, and definitely better than being homeless.
Re:Important to note ..... (Score:4, Insightful)
It's an important reminder that it only takes one mistake to get caught, and it doesn't even need to be your own mistake.
With all the problems in the world... (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's focus on recreational drugs!
It's as if we don't want peoples attention on the real criminals.
Sociopath plutocrats and their dogs.
http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats [globalissues.org]
Re:Queue The Anarchist & Druggie Comments In.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Queue The Anarchist & Druggie Comments In.. (Score:5, Insightful)
3... 2... 1. GO! Write posts explaining how people buying things like herion and cocaine on the black market is okay.
hmmm! ...hmm! ... People should be the owners of their own lives and taking responsibility away from people and treating them as stupid children turns them into stupid children!
Right? ... Right? ...What did I win?
Re:Queue The Anarchist & Druggie Comments In.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Crime (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Crime (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Important to note ..... (Score:2, Insightful)
Buyers are the low hanging fruit. They're the ones who actually needed to provide a physical address somewhere along the way.
Re:Queue The Anarchist & Druggie Comments In.. (Score:1, Insightful)
Cigarettes are legal, but there is still considerable crime around them, including large scale smuggling and tax evasion. There will continue to be a market for illegal drugs in one form or another even if certain street drugs are legalized. (I very much every one would be.) Some people won't want to pay taxes, some people will want something different. People go looking for new, different, bigger, better, longer lasting highs all the time. And as the story about the skin eating drug Krokodil [usatoday.com] showed, people don't necessarily care about the consequences if they end up taking certain drugs. People say that alcohol prohibition in the US didn't work, and there were certainly problems attached to it. But it is a fact that Prohibition caused alcohol consumption to fall sharply in the US, and per capita consumption was far lower even after it ended than before it began. It took something like 50 years for alcohol consumption to return to where it was.
Re:Crime (Score:5, Insightful)
That's right. If it's white collar theft (public or private), then the law is on your side. In fact, the system encourages it.
Re:Mod Down - Logical Fallacy (Score:5, Insightful)
His point isn't that we have to choose between prosecuting drug users and bankers. His point is that drug enforcement is a distraction for the people, so that they don't demand we prosecute bankers. It's misdirection.
Re:Queue The Anarchist & Druggie Comments In.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Heroin, not heroine ...
Anyway, no, heroin does not "kill more and more until they reach a critical level and die". The AC you replied to has it more correct. MOST (not all) heroin ODs are from new batches or some other mistake. Or mixing heroin with alcohol and / or other drugs.
Which brings me to my real point. If you think that heroin is dangerous (and it is), what's your thinking on alcohol? Or tobacco? The societal costs of either drug dwarf the societal costs of ALL illegal drugs, sans law enforcement costs put together. If you plan to be logically consistent (never a strong point with humans), then we should outlaw alcohol (again) and tobacco (goodluckwiththat).
Yes, there are medical costs associated with drug use, those problems should be left to the medical community, not the legal one. We're not perfect, but our track record is considerably better. You are never going to have a society free of drug use and other behaviors that are demonstrably bad for the individual. Where the US screws up big time is believing that the legal process is the way to redress those issues. We've demonstrably shown that the "War on Drugs" doesn't work.
Time to do the American thing and re invent ourselves and switch gears. The rather interesting thing is that Colorado and Washington have waded into that vast abyss and are trying to figure out how to make an illegal drug legal. This will inevitably be (somewhat) successful and can point to the way to legalize other drugs, although not likely any time soon. Our underlying Calvinist / Puritan mythology will hang on for a while longer, I'm afraid.
Re:Crime (Score:2, Insightful)
When did you spend time in prison to make such a comment?
Anyone who has spent time in a Federal prison will tell you a very different story. You will either be housed with very violent people and in constant danger of beatings, rape, or murder, or you will be held in prolonged isolation until you lose the ability to tell reality from imagination.
This guy is almost dead already. Do not believe anything the prosecutors say. He is for all intents without legal representation.
Welcome to the USSA!