Meet Ross William Ulbricht, the man behind the Silk Road drug empire

Ulbricht, aka Dread Pirate Roberts, was the head of an online operation that has been called the eBay of drugs

Silk Road
(Image credit: (Courtesy Shutterstock))

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, in tandem with local law enforcement agencies, has shut down the underground web drug marketplace Silk Road, and arrested its alleged proprietor.

Authorities called Silk Road, where users swapped the artificial currency known as Bitcoin for illicit drugs, "the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the internet today." The FBI pegged sales on the site at more than 9.5 million Bitcoins, or roughly $1.2 billion given the current market for the pseudo-money.

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Jon Terbush

Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.