Brisbane man arrested in Silk Road online black market crackdown

Updated

A Brisbane man who allegedly helped run online drug and hacker bazaar Silk Road has been arrested as part of an international police operation.

Peter Phillip Nash, 40, was arrested on Friday at his Brisbane home by Australian Federal Police as part of an operation that also captured two others named in an indictment issued by the US Justice Department.

What is the Silk Road?

Website launched in February 2011, became known as 'eBay for drugs'

Complex masking and encryption software made it difficult to track users

Users traded in Bitcoin - an online currency that hides purchasers' identities

Vendors would use regular mail to post drugs to buyers

Drugs like heroin, cocaine and synthetic substances reportedly for sale

Founder Ross William Ulbricht reportedly operated site from San Francisco

Ulbricht arrested and site shut down in October 2013

Ulbricht sentenced to life in prison in May 2015

Andrew Michael Jones, 24, was arrested in the US, while Gary Davis, 25, is believed to be in Ireland, according to the department officials.

A spokesperson for the Attorney-General's Department has confirmed Nash's arrest, saying he is wanted in the US "for conspiracy to traffic narcotics, conspiracy to commit computer hacking and conspiracy to commit money laundering".

If found guilty, he will face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Nash is listed in the indictment as the website's primary moderator and was allegedly paid between $US50,000 and $US75,000 a year.

He appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday and was remanded in custody.

The extradition process can be long and complex. He will next appear in court on February 19.

Court documents show that during its more than two-and-a-half years in operation, the site was used by thousands of drug dealers to traffic heroin, cocaine and amphetamines.

Officials in October arrested the alleged mastermind of the website, Ross William Ulbricht, who was said to go by the name Dread Pirate Roberts.

Ulbricht, who is awaiting trial in New York, has denied the charges and also claims he is not Dread Pirate Roberts.

Last month, a message appeared on the social media site Reddit claiming Silk Road had reopened weeks after it was shut down by the FBI.

The message was signed "Dread Pirate Roberts".

The message said Silk Road had implemented "a complete security overhaul" to keep the marketplace out of the reach of authorities.

The site is accessible only through online encryption offered via a service known as Tor.

Federal agents announced in October they had shut down the website, which used privacy protecting Tor and Bitcoin digital currency to shield the identities of buyers and sellers.

Authorities said that from about January 2011, Ulbricht ran a marketplace that hawked heroin, cocaine, LSD and methamphetamine, as well as hacker tools such as software for stealing passwords or logging keystrokes on people's machines.

Silk Road took in commissions ranging from eight to 15 per cent of sales, raking in at least $80 million on more than $1.2 billion worth of transactions, the criminal complaint estimated.

US attorney Preet Bharara said the investigation is ongoing.

ABC/AFP

Topics: law-crime-and-justice, crime, drug-offences, internet-culture, computers-and-technology, internet-technology, brisbane-4000, qld, australia, united-states, ireland

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