We've got an update in the pre-trial saga of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht as a new, amended indictment got filed by federal prosecutors last week. As Ars Technica reports, Ulbricht now faces three new counts, two of which are drug related, on top of the four federal charges previously filed against him.
Ulbricht, who was arrested last October in a dramatic raid in San Francisco, was previously charged with narcotics trafficking conspiracy, continuing criminal enterprise, computer hacking conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy in connection with his alleged operation and management of the black market website Silk Road.
Now, in addition to those charges, to which Ulbricht already pleaded not guilty, he's charged with one count each of narcotics trafficking, distribution of narcotics by means of the Internet, and conspiracy to traffic in fraudulent identification documents.
It sounds as though the government solidified evidence connecting Ulbricht to specific sales of quantities of narcotics. To be exact, from the indictment:
one kilogram and more of mixtures and substances containing a detectable amount of heroin, five kilograms and more of mixtures and substances containing a detectable amount of cocaine, 10 grams and more of mixtures and substances containing a detectable amount of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and 500 grams and more of mixtures and substances containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine, its salts, isomers and salts of its isomers
The death of Silk Road has since spawned more shady marketplaces in the deep web like Black Market Reloaded where Ryan Chamberlain allegedly bought all his poison-making materials, and which the feds are clearly trying to bust by going after its users.
Ulbricht, who denies both his involvement in the site and culpability in the lawbreaking of users of the site, has also been connected to plots to murder as many as six individuals, though no one ever actually got whacked.
Most recently, Ulbricht's attorney was trying to argue that bitcoin wasn't money, and therefore he couldn't be charged with money laundering. But a federal judge laughed that off.
The date for Ulbricht's trial, in federal court in New York, is now set for November 3.
