News, views and top stories in your inbox. Don't miss our must-read newsletter Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

A new online black market for illegal drugs has launched on the 'invisible' internet.

Silk Road Reloaded follows in the footsteps of the Silk Road, a site on the anonymous Tor network that sold drugs, weapons and other mostly illegal items.

The original Silk Road (and its successor Silk Road 2.0) was seized by the FBI, and its alleged creator, Ross William Ulbricht faces a trial in New York this week, having been charged with designing and operating an online criminal enterprise.

There is no connection - apart from the name - between the original Silk Road site and Silk Road Reloaded.

You can only access Silk Road Reloaded if you download software called I2P, which stands for the Invisible Internet Project. Like the Tor network, I2P lets you browse websites and send messages anonymously.

Websites on the I2P network are called 'eepsites' and end with .i2p instead of .com or .co.uk. You can only view these eepsites by downloading the I2P software - and it tends to be pretty slow.

The new site will take payments in the form of a variety of digital currencies including Bitcoin, Blackcoin, Anoncoin, Feathercoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin.

The site makes money by taking a small transaction fee whenever someone sells drugs through the marketplace. This site also takes a fee when a digital currency is converted into Bitcoin.

The creator of the new site has been promoting it on the Silk Road section of Reddit, saying: "I've built a great platform and it speaks for itself."

The site has been in development for a year, according to the founder.

Many other Redditors have criticised the founder for simply trying to capitalise on the Silk Road "brand" - particularly as the name is now a red flag to any police officers monitoring these sorts of marketplaces.

One said: "The name is tainted. It is like saying 'The Hitler Boutique'. It may have nothing to do with Hitler or the Nazis, its just the owners name."