FBI Infiltrated Silk Road 2.0 Right From the Start

From the complaint against Balke Benthall the alleged operator of Silk Road 2.0:

On or about October 7, 2013, the HSI-UC [a Homeland Security Investigations undercover agent] was invited to join a newly created discussion forum on the Tor network, concerning the potential creation of a replacement for the Silk Road 1.0 website. The next day, on or about October 8, 2013, the persons operating the forum gave the HSI‐UC moderator privileges, enabling the HSI‐UC to access areas of the forum available only to forum staff. The forum would later become the discussion forum associated with the Silk Road 2.0 website...

On or about September 11, 2014, Defcon [Benthall] had an online conversation with the HSI-UC, in which he...acknowledged that the site had approximately 150,000 monthly active users (“We have 150,000 monthly active users. That’s why we have to save this thing.”). 

This is not play stuff guys. Benthall faces a raft of series charges that could send him to federal prison for life. He is facing one count of conspiring to commit narcotics trafficking, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison; one count of conspiring to commit computer hacking, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; one count of conspiring to traffic in fraudulent identification documents, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison; and one count of money laundering conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Bitcoin is not a shield from government enforcers. It is not a libertarian answer to fiat currency. You are delusional if you think it is.

(ht Kerbs on Security)