NEW YORK, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation in conjunction with Homeland Security, has shut down online drug marketplace Silk Road 2.0 and charged 26-year-old San Francisco resident Blake Benthall of operating the illegal website under the psydonym "defcon."
"As alleged, Blake Benthall attempted to resurrect Silk Road, a secret website that law enforcement seized last year, by running Silk Road 2.0, a nearly identical criminal enterprise," Manhattan U.S. attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
According to authorities, after Silk Road was shut down in October 2013 and the subsequent arrest of alleged founder Ross Ulbricht, Benthall announced his takeover, writing, "I have very clear instructions as to what to do in this worst case scenario...I cannot elaborate on specifics, but the marketplace is safe in my hands until the Captain returns or his successor appears."
Operating as Silk Road 2, the FBI says Benthall and his team oversaw the sale of more than $8 million in narcotics per month.
Silk Road 2.0 allowed thousands of drug dealers to illegally buy and sell drugs anonymously over the Internet
— FBI New York (@NewYorkFBI) November 6, 2014"Let's be clear -- this Silk Road, in whatever form, is the road to prison. Those looking to follow in the footsteps of alleged cybercriminals should understand that we will return as many times as necessary to shut down noxious online criminal bazaars. We don't get tired."
