An Irish national Gary Davis, who is also known as Libertas, has pleaded guilty to charges related to drug trafficking and is now facing up to 20 years in prison.
Davis is accused of running the infamous marketplace Silk Road and served as forum moderator and site administrator while he was involved in the selling of narcotics.
Silk Road used to be a thriving marketplace on the Dark Web where illegal drugs, goods, and other services were sold. Thousands were using Silk Road to buy or sell illegal services and goods.
The marketplace’s servers were taken down by the FBI in 2013 and its founder Ross William Ulbricht was arrested and sentenced to life in prison on multiple counts of illegal drugs selling. The FBI also seized Bitcoins worth nearly $33.6 million from Silk Road, which were auctioned in phases by the United States Marshals Service (USMS).
According to a press release from the US Department of Justice, the accused was responsible for the smooth running of the black market website and also offered customer support to users of Silk Road to help them in making purchases or selling stuff. This went on for several months, until 2013 when the Silk Road was officially taken offline.
Gary Davis
Davis was then arrested too in January 2014 from Ireland and the US federal prosecutors indicted him later. In July 2014, he was extradited to the US after a decision taken by the Irish Supreme Court.
“Davis’s arrest, extradition from Ireland, and conviction should send a clear message: the purported anonymity of the dark web is not a protective shield from prosecution,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman.
According to prosecutors, through Silk Road over $200m worth of illegal contrabands and drugs were sold. The accused will be formally sentenced at 3:30 pm on 17 January, 2019 by Judge Furman.
