The online drug trade took a huge hit this week.
Law enforcement agencies around the world on Thursday announced they have shuttered Silk Road 2 and more than 400 other sites believed to be selling illegal drugs, guns, and other unsavory services in a coordinated action dubbed "Operation Onymous."
In conjunction with the takedowns, police arrested 17 people accused of running these online marketplaces, and seized approximately $1 million worth of bitcoins along with drugs, silver, and gold, Europol announced.
In the U.S., police shut down Silk Road 2 and arrested its alleged operator, 26-year-old Blake Benthall of San Francisco. Silk Road 2 is the reincarnation of the original Silk Road, an online black market for all things criminal that was shut down by the feds last year.
"As alleged, Blake Benthall attempted to resurrect Silk Road, a secret website that law enforcement seized last year, by running Silk Road 2.0, a nearly identical criminal enterprise," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. "Let's be clear — this Silk Road, in whatever form, is the road to prison."
Benthall ran Silk Road 2 on Tor, a network designed to disguise the Internet addresses of its users. Silk Road 2 first emerged last November and was only accessible to those who had an invite and signed in using Tor. As of last month, Silk Road 2 was generating sales of at least $8 million per month, and had around 150,000 active users, police said.
Benthall has been charged with conspiracy to commit narcotics trafficking (10 years to life in prison), conspiracy to commit computer hacking (up to 5 years in prison), conspiracy to traffic in fraudulent identification documents (up to 15 years in prison), and money laundering conspiracy (up to 20 years in prison).
The arrest comes after Silk Road 2 back in February lost approximately $2.7 million in an alleged bitcoin hack.