Last October, the ‘Silk Road’ story broke when its owner Ross William Ulbricht, a 29-year-old who allegedly created and managed the Silk Road underground website, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The police seized the website that was considered one of the most popular Underground places on the Internet for buying drugs and other illicit goods and services.
Just some days after the Shutdown of Silk Road, Authorities in Britain, Sweden, and the United States arrested eight more vendors who dedicatedly used to sell illegal drugs on Silk Road.
Yesterday, Cornelis Jan Slomp, a 22-year old Dutch man who allegedly used the Silk Road underground black market website to sell illegal drugs for bitcoins worth millions of dollars has agreed to plead guilty in Chicago federal court to federal drug conspiracy charge filed against him, according to a statement issued by U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Fardon in Chicago and Slomp’s lawyer.
The ‘Silk Road‘ website, which had operated since early 2011, generated about $1.2 billion in sales of heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, marijuana and other illegal substances in less than three years, with Silk Road’s operators netting $80 million in commissions. The website also offered tutorials on hacking ATM machines, contact lists for black market connections and counterfeiters, and guns and hit men for sale, according to the charges.
Cornelis Jan Slomp, who go by the name ‘SuperTrips’ was arrested with over $20,000 in cash at Miami International Airport in August where, according to police, he planned to meet with the partners in the drug trade last year. He is in custody facing a maximum term of as long as 40 years, a $5 million fine and a forfeiture of more than $3 million in alleged proceeds of his crimes.