Silk Road, an internet underground reputation-based trading system that boasted anonymity, has been shut down. For the past two years, Silk Road made buying and selling illegal drugs online as easy as buying used books, for those savvy enough to get to the Deep Web.

Silk Road eluded law enforcement for two years, as it was only accessible through the anonymizing network, TOR, which required a bit of technical skill to configure, and only accepted bitcoins, which are untraceable digital currency. The site sold nearly 340 items, including drugs, weapons, and even hit-men.  However, due to mistakes made by Silk Road’s founder, Ross William Ulbrecht, known online as “Dread Pirate Roberts,” including posting his e-mail address online, FBI agents found and shut down the site and charged the 29-year-old American with narcotics trafficking, computer hacking and money laundering.

According to the indictment, Silk Road had acquired nearly a million registered users worldwide — about 30% of whom were based in the U.S. — in its two and a half years of operation. The site provided users with guidance on how to hide their communications and pack their wares to avoid detection by law enforcement when shipping through the postal service. Last year, the indictment said, the site added a “stealth mode” for users who considered themselves “at risk of becoming a target for law enforcement.”

The indictment further stated that the site had generated over 9.5 million bitcoins in sales revenue and over 600,000 bitcoins in commissions (stemming from a total of $1.2 billion in business). The value of bitcoins has fluctuated dramatically since the digital currency was created, and it plummeted after Ulbricht’s arrest.

Silk Road may be gone, but as long as the demand is there, there will be successors. CSIP, its members, and law enforcement officials are aware of the existence of alternative black drug markets online and are working tirelessly to combat such sites. We hope that consumers will heed our warning and keep in mind that no medications should be taken without a prescription from a physician. The drugs sold on these types of rogue sites may be substandard or harmful to consumers. We will continue to provide education and help law enforcement in its efforts to combat these and all other illicit online pharmacy sites.

####

The Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies (CSIP) and our 13 member companies have the shared goal of helping address the growing problem of consumer access to illegitimate pharmaceutical products on the Internet. Continue to read this blog for updates on CSIP’s education, enforcement and information-sharing efforts.