The seedy site known as eBay for heroin
Pot, cocaine, LSD, pills … undercover agent tells how anonymous buyers could name their poison as alleged Silk Road founder faces court
Ross William Ulbricht, 30, who prosecutors say went by the name of "Dread Pirate Roberts", is on trial for creating Silk Road and running it until his arrest in October 2013.
A federal agent who said he made more than 50 drug buys from Silk Road and went undercover as a site administrator, walked jurors through the process of anonymously trading money for bitcoins and buying drugs with a few clicks of a mouse.
Jared Der-Yeghiayan, a Department of Homeland Security special agent, told jurors in Ulbricht's conspiracy and drug- trafficking trial in Manhattan that Silk Road had 13,810 listings of drugs for sale around the time it was shut down.
Buyers could click on a listing for "1 gram of Blue Magic Black Tar Heroin (85% pure)" or "0.5 Gr Uncut Crack Cocaine!!" and add the purchase to a virtual shopping cart, pay with bitcoins, then wait for the drugs in the mail.