Blake Benthall's rented apartment in San Francisco's Mission District stood out to neighbors. At first, that was because of the ornate pirate ship cutout in the bay window. But in January, it caught neighbors' eye for a different reason: Benthall bought a flashy car.

A few months after the launch of Silk Road 2.0, the drug-dealing website Benthall is accused of running, he brought home a brand-new Tesla S . He rented driveway space from his next-door neighbor, an 85-year-old woman who also sometimes read the Bible with him. He kept the book inside the Tesla.

The details are in a weekend piece by Mission Local, a neighborhood news site that spoke to several of Benthall's neighbors on Florida Street. Benthall lived with two roommates who couldn't be reached.

"He told me about his mom who missed him very much," said the 85-year-old neighbor, who declined to give her name. “As a mother I know what that feels like. I was the only person he talked to. He was very polite. He told me, 'Let me know whenever you need a ride.'"

Another neighbor said Benthall "looked like any other techie."

Car aside, Benthall didn't really stand out until his arrest last week. As he pulled the gray Tesla out of the driveway, he was surrounded by some 20 FBI agents, weapons drawn. "They told us to go inside the house,” said a neighbor, identified only as Francisco.

"He was a nice guy," Francisco added. "He would invite us to parties at his house. I feel bad for him. The guy was an entrepreneur."

Benthall is being held on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering. The FBI says that before the site was shut down, it was selling $8 million per month in illegal drugs.