Silk Road Moderator Faces Extradition to the US

IRELAND — The High Court will decide on the extradition of Gary Davis (27), from Johnstown Court, Kilpedder, on a mixed bag of hacking and laundering charges stemming from the Silk Road (SR) website. Davis, otherwise known as “Libertas,” was indicted in late 2013 with two others, Peter Nash and Andrew Jones “Inigo,” for being SR moderators. However, two out of the three walked free on bail, and the United States wants Gary Davis on New York soil.

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The entire Silk Road case is filled with corrupt agents and mysterious stories, typically involving millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin. After the fall of the Silk Road in 2014, Irish authorities arrested Davis on accusations of being a moderator for the original Silk Road marketplace. Davis was later released on bail. The United States Justice Department believes Davis and others helped Ross Ulbricht with the day-to-day operations and also the charges of laundering bitcoins. Now, a Judge will rule in February on Davis’s extradition to the States, and he will face a life sentence.

Davis is opposing the request to be sent back to the States due to the prison standards in the region. Mr. Davis has objected to the extradition, saying he suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome and deep depression. The complaint is that he will be treated inhumanly in New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Centre.

Another suspect in the case a man called, “Variety Jones” was recently arrested in Thailand and faces extradition himself. Jones is said to have been the mastermind behind the operation and taught the Dread Pirate Roberts everything he knows. Just before Jones was caught in Thailand he told a story of U.S. agents plundering marketplaces and raking in millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin.

Peter Nash was sentenced to time served and became a free man just three days before the Ulbricht sentencing.

Andrew Jones’s family paid 1 million in bail for him, and he remains on house arrest without Internet access.

Davis has also been able to remain free in Ireland and authorities from the FBI have travelled to the region to question him. When the Silk Road was seized, Libertas wrote a goodbye to the world via the SR forums saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters in arms, the Silk Road has fallen.”

Davis might be taken to the U.S. if the Judge in Ireland does not view his objections as valid. Lawyers from the State Department believe Davis should be surrendered. However, in a sworn statement from a UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Professor Juan Mendez said there were issues with the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

It’s entirely possible that conditions in the United States prison are not up to par, as critics have had problems with possibly inhumane treatment going on in the correctional unit. In a report by the publication the Nation, the Metropolitan Correctional Center was seen to be basically a Guantanamo Bay of New York. The headline said it all by saying, “Americans remain mostly blind to the abusive treatment of terror suspects on US soil.”

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