A new anonymous internet marketplace for illegal drugs has debuted, with the same name and appearance as the Silk Road website shut down by US law enforcement authorities a month ago.
Like its predecessor, the new Silk Road lists hundreds of advertisements for marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and other illegal drugs for purchase from independent sellers using the anonymous Bitcoin digital currency.
On October 1, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation shut down the original Silk Road and arrested its alleged mastermind, Ross William Ulbricht, 29, known online as "Dread Pirate Roberts," in San Francisco.
"It took the FBI 21/2 years to do what they did ... but four weeks of temporary silence is all they got," a site administrator wrote, also using the "Dread Pirate Roberts" moniker.
The FBI declined to comment on the new version of the Silk Road, which went live on Wednesday. For more than two years, the original site acted like an eBay of vice, allowing users to buy and sell illegal goods and services on the assumption that they were safe from the law. Deliveries were made through the mail in discrete packages.
US authorities say Ulbricht tried to get a hitman to kill a user who had threatened to expose the identities of thousands of Silk Road users. Ulbricht's lawyer said his client would plead not guilty to drug trafficking, hacking and money-laundering charges.