Prosecutors has brought up new charges in against the accused Silk Road creator (also known as Dread Pirate Roberts) Ross Ulbricht, who was arrested late last year for running allegedly running a web service that allowed online users to purchase narcotics and other illicit items using the bitcoin digital currency.
As of Thursday, a new indictment was filed against Ulbricht, adding narcotics trafficking charges, distribution of narcotics via the Internet, and conspiracy to traffic in fraudulent identification documents.
Specifically, these charges accuses Ulbricht of assisting in the selling of substances like methamphetamine, cocaine, and LSD. They also accuse him of assisting in the selling of fake documents like Passports, driver’s licenses, and other forms of identification.
These charges add to the already-serious charges Ulbricht is facing, which includes narcotics trafficking conspiracy, continuing criminal enterprise, computer hacking conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy.
Along with the arrest of Ulbricht came the downfall of the Silk Road website (accessible only via the deep web), though a new iteration of the service sprouted up about a month later.
Federal authorities seized over 100,000 bitcoins from the Silk Road servers, some of which were recently sold at auction by the United States Marshals Service.
Investor Tim Draper acquired approximately 30,000 bitcoins, which will be used for an upcoming institutional-grade cryptocurrency exchange.
Meanwhile, Ulbricht’s family has demanded for his release, setting up a website at FreeRoss.org in order to collect donations for his legal defense.
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The U.S. v. Ulbricht trial is slated to begin in November.
[textmarker color=”C24000″]Sources[/textmarker] The Guardian, Reuters