The Silk Road website, before being shut this week by the U.S., was a cyber-bazaar of the criminal underworld that connected buyers and sellers of heroin, cocaine and hacking services. It combined eBay-style customer reviews and shipping tips with an open disregard for the law.
"We are happy to announce a new category in the marketplace called Forgeries," the site's alleged 29-year-old overseer, who called himself Dread Pirate Roberts, said in a message posted Aug. 5, 2011, according to a criminal complaint in Manhattan federal court. "In this category, you will find offers for forged, government-issued documents including fake IDs and passports."
U.S. agents arrested the man they believe is Dread Pirate Roberts and seized the site, describing it in the complaint unsealed yesterday as "the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet." Silk Road used Bitcoin digital currency to generate the equivalent of $1.2 billion in illicit sales and take in $80 million in commissions in less than three years, according to the complaint.