http://www.heavy.com/news/2013/12/pe...-road-arrests/
http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pres...ilkRoad2PR.php
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013...rket-case?lite
http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/20/5...road-2-0-busts
The extent to which LE infiltrated (the Silk Road website) sufficient to learn the RW identities of site administrators and moderators is noteworthy.
It is also interesting that following the indictment of the bigger fish, LE and prosecutors still actively seeking out site mods presumably to enlarge the scope of the "conspiracy." In addition to asset forfeiture authority, things like treble damages give prosecutors "incentive" to make big cases.
Snowden taught us that our government records our emails, phone calls and texts and probably has cryptography tools that enable them to easily identify peeps who "control" their online handles.
This Silk Road case (especially as it relates to Nash) teaches us that site admins and mods are NOT anonymous, rather they are being tracked down, arrested and charged as co conspirators.
One could argue with some persuasion that - - the extent to which LE will go for drugs far greater than it would go after [mostly] consensual sex work. This may be true. Or not.
One thing clear from this, they will find you if/when they really want to?
19Trees