29-year-old Ross Ulbricht, a.k.a. Dread Pirate Roberts, the man arrested on suspicion of running an online drug ring known as Silk Road denies any involvement in the operation. As Ulbricht's appointed federal public defender Brandon LeBlanc said during a bail hearing on Friday, "We deny all charges. That's the end of the discussion."

Ulbricht was arrested in the Science Fiction section of the Glen Park Branch of the San Francisco Public Library on Wednesday. In a criminal complaint filed in New York, Ulbricht is accused of narcotics trafficking, computer hacking and money laundering for a scheme that allowed users to anonymously purchase hard drugs ranging from LSD and MDMA to cocaine and heroin.

Due to the complexity of the case, LeBlanc asked the judge to postpone the bail hearing until next week. Ulbricht will appear in court again next Tuesday, October 9th.

In the meantime, scores of articles have flown up onto the Internet, claiming to get at the heart of the issue. Depending on your news source, Ulbricht is either a techno-libertarian, a less-than-discrete hacker or your typical San Francisco coffee shop patron.

[LATimes]