Silk Road Article in Rolling Stone
I'm sure most of us are familiar with the Silk Road, but I thought this in-depth article was extremely interesting. I searched, sorry if it's been posted before.
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By
David Kushner
February 4, 2014 9:00 AM ET
On October 1st, 2013, inside the science-fiction section of the Glen Park library in San Francisco, one of the Internet's most-wanted men sat typing quietly on his laptop. He'd allegedly assumed multiple identities and made nearly half a billion dollars in under three years. He was said to be as grandiose as he was cold-blooded, championing freedom while ordering hits on those who crossed him.
None of the geeks milling around the stacks that day, nor even those closest to Ross Ulbricht, suspected that the slight, pale 29-year-old was, according to prosecutors, the notorious hacker known as Dread Pirate Roberts. He was allegedly the founder of Silk Road, an online illegalgoods bazaar that had been dubbed the eBay of vice. A Texas native with a master's in materials science and engineering and a mop of brown hair, Ulbricht bore such a resemblance to Robert Pattinson that girls stopped him in the street to take their picture with him. The library was near where he had been living since moving to the city a year earlier. He liked to come here for the silence and the free Wi-Fi.
But at 3:15 p.m., the quiet was broken when, out of nowhere, a young woman in street clothes charged toward Ulbricht yelling, "I'm so sick of you!" and grabbed his laptop. Ulbricht leapt from his seat to grab it back, when the half dozen other readers at nearby tables suddenly lunged for him, pushing him up against a window. Hearing the commotion, the librarian rushed over to assist Ulbricht. "Go back to your desk," the woman who had started it all told her. "We're making an arrest."
Stripping off their civilian shirts to reveal FBI vests, the agents told Ulbricht to turn around. He had no expression when they cuffed him. As they led him toward the door, the female agent turned to the mystified onlookers and said, "Surprise!"
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http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/dead-end-on-silk-road-internet-crime-kingpin-ross-ulbrichts-big-
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