Dread Pirate Roberts a real-life libertarian hero to the drugs community, but to the law enforcement agencies he's the mastermind behind a global drugs trafficking website

Why is the man behind the Silk Road drugs website speaking to the press?

Name: Dread Pirate Roberts.

Age: Unknown.

Appearance: Unknown.

Oo, I know! I know! He's the masked, blousoned crusader of the high seas who underneath looks a lot like Cary Elwes! In The Princess Bride! It's not that one. We're talking about the owner of the two-year-old Silk Road website who has just given his first major interview to Forbes magazine.

What have pirates got to do with what is presumably an online resource for fans of ancient trade routes? Actually, Silk Road is an online black market in drugs. You pays your Bitcoin and you takes your vacuum-packed, discreetly labelled, standard US postal service-delivered choice.

Oh. Well, yes, that does make the whole thing a bit more piratical. As the fictional Dread Pirate is a persona handed down through generations, the name has excited the Silk Road community, which thinks it suggests that the current boss inherited the title from another founder and/or that he is not one man but many.

Hearing other people's drug-fuelled conspiracy theories is almost as boring as hearing about their dreams. Truly. Mr D P Roberts, however, describes himself or himselves as a radical libertarian revolutionary and a "centre of trust" for all Silk Road's otherwise decentralised operations.

What a nice way of putting it. Tell me, is the online drugs trade as lucrative as its real-life counterpart? Silk Road is estimated to have an annual revenue of $30m-$45m through its 10% commission on sales. What the profits may be on the amount of Bitcoin it has amassed – the online currency has appreciated nearly 200-fold against those moribund greenbacks – nobody knows.

Once again, I find myself in the wrong – legal, reputable – job. Dread Pirate Robert believes himself engaged in the entirely reputable – nay, noble – business of empowering citizens.

Oh yes? "The people can now control flow and distribution of information and the flow of money," he says. "Sector by sector, the state is being cut out of the equation."

I believe that is just what the average crackhead is jonesing for. And is this how US drug and law enforcement agencies feel about him too? No. They are trying to find him and shut the site down, but so far both have remained too well hidden.

Do say: "Chillax, bro."

Don't say: "It's The Wire(less broadband)!"