One Mistake Took Down this 29-Yr-Old Dark Web Drug Lord
Ross Ulbricht never thought he'd get caught. The first 1,000 people to use my link will get a 1-month FREE trial of Skillshare skl.sh/newsthink08221
*CORRECTIONS: Ulbricht attended the University of Texas at Dallas, not Austin. He was born in March 27, not March 17.
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Thumbnail source: Ross Ulbricht photo sourced from freeross.org
Sources:
0:04 Eric E Castro from San Francisco, CC BY 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/... via Wikimedia Commons
0:08 Ross Ulbricht image: freeross.org
0:20 Original Silk Road map: Kelvin Case, CC BY-SA 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/... via Wikimedia Commons (edited by Newsthink)
1:45 Ludwig von Mises Institute, CC BY-SA 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/b... via Wikimedia Commons
1:50 Mitt Romney image: Chris Devers, CC BY 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/... via Wikimedia Commons
3:25 Ross Ulbricht image: freeross.org
4:47 Jared Der-Yeghiayan image: LinkedIn
5:48 Mobilus In Mobili, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/... via Wikimedia Commons
6:37 Ross Ulbricht with sister image: freeross.org
6:42 Variety Jones photo courtesy of: Eileen Ormsby eileenormsby.com/2018/06/16/v...
7:00 Ross Ulbricht laptop courtesy of the FBI
9:00 Carl Force “Nob” photo shown in court during Ulbricht’s trial
9:47 Curtis Clark Green image: Tonya Heaps Green | Facebook
11:20 Chris Tarbell image: LinkedIn
12:13 Government exhibit
14:13 Government exhibit
16:56 Eric E Castro from San Francisco, CC BY 2.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/... via Wikimedia Commons
22:03 Variety Jones image courtesy of Eileen Ormsby eileenormsby.com/2018/06/16/v...
*Do you agree with the judge's sentence?* CORRECTIONS: Ulbricht attended the University of Texas at Dallas, not Austin. He was born on March 27, not March 17. The first 1,000 people to use my link will get a 1-month FREE trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/newsthink03221
Well yeah, if you think about it objectively his actions got him thrown into the category of druglords and kingpins. And I don't think it can be overstated that this guy ordered the deaths of 5 people who threatened his empire... And he showed no indicator of remorse or regret for his actions. He was on his way to easily becoming equivalent to a cartel.
Glad to see your posting As in the 'ALEX WINTER Dir;/w/-Keanu Reeves Narration;"The Deep Web"they cover all the factual 'documented'etc pertaining to this.So full of misinformation' please allways Challange these Tabloid bits.!
@Daniel Sifrit m
0mmmmmmmmmmm0
So basically after years of dea and fbi investigations an irs agent found him by googling him. I feel like that should be a major moral to the story.
@C Fox Moral of the story is don't be a criminal lol
@Jorge B. For sure they're like bloodhounds of wireless information. You can't escape the IRS 😂
You know what they say, you can fuck with even FBI, but not IRS.
The "technique" had worked many years ago with Al Capone, so why not?
Thats brutal. The crooked cop and secret service agent only get 6 and 8 years. Thats insane. Plus, multiple life sentences for drug dealing? He didn't even supply the drugs, he just created the marketplace. Definitely made an example out of him.
If he was black, he would have gotten out on low bail.
@Anthony Hallberg Moral of the story is play stupid games and win stupid prizes.... What he did got him thrown into the organized crime category of law - so he was treated with the same level as a drug lord in a cartel would be. The only saving grace really was that they couldn't prove anyone was actually murdered on his order, but he DID order people's deaths.... That's a pretty severe thing to do.
Just because he did it with the internet instead of with mules doesn't make him any less a kingpin. He still oversaw and profited very largely off of the operation.
@Anthony Hallberg “”””protect”””” I feel so much safer knowing that the guy who made Silk Road is serving life in prison 🙄
Judges have too much power
The Judge had an interesting perspective in her findings. Murderers, and Rapists don’t get life, so I personally don’t agree, but I hadn’t considered comparing him to a real life drug dealer. If the Manson girls can get out, surely this guy can, especially as our culture moves towards treating addiction as the mental illness, & health problem that it truly is. He’s fortunate to have so many supporters.
@temp that’s not how it is in general, you’re bringing up isolated wilf fucked up occurences as if they’re the majority which is absolutely not true
@WorldIsFilledB a baby killer got either 5 or 15.. don’t quite remember and it was a pretty volatile crime with details.. but he was a fireman so give him a slap on the wrist. justice system is a joke
Murderers don’t get life? Lol okay
@RetroModern Art Not until trumps in prison.
That judgement was too harsh. Even murderers get out of prison quickly and giving interviews on how they commited that murder.
@Keyboard Commando mexican pharmacys
brooo he tried to create a freeeee online global illegal drug trade and ordered hits, he ran a online mafia Escobar style racquet but online
@Ominous Pigeon Master yeah because the hits weren't actual hits
@ComradeKenobi wasn't that charge dropped?
This just fuels my disgust for the "Justice" system even more. Like many have stated before me, murderers get shorter terms, the government themselves smuggled in cocaine in the 80's, but God forbid that an individual does the same and Uncle Sam doesn't get a cut of the profits. The biggest prison sentence he obtain was the financial one, speaks volumes.
@Sam Johannes there were no charges for that.
He put 5 hits out.
You summarised whole story in 23 minutes, was aware of the incident from the beginning but you have done a great research and wonderful storytelling.
only got his birthdate and college wrong 👍🏻
@Damien O Callaghan Wait are you serious? That voice is a robot?
Safe comment traffic lifting bot
Nope. Not accurate.
if only it could turn into a mini series it would be really fun to watch
Great video! I hadn’t heard of what happened to him. I think that sentence was such crap. Think of the damage caused by the banks done in 2008 - what sentences did the criminals involved in those crimes serve?
Still in control
Well, since it was largely the fault of the government...none of them were sentenced LOL
Watching this actually makes me side with liberty and makes drug prohibition seem even sillier.
I truly appreciate the storytelling and detail that's gone into this video. Thank you🇰🇪
This is better than any documentary out there! Well done 👏🏻
The most interesting thing for me is that he allegedly ordered multiple murders for hire. It says a lot about how it all snowballed for him. From a free marketplace to getting to this dark place of being a world #1 drug lord that "does what he has to do" like murder for hire. I think he never intended to do that kind of things when he first started the project.
that was the moment Ross Ulbricht became Dread Pirate Roberts
@Pixel Heisenberg
@Ian Krasnow And the cop that stole 20,000 BTC would have been worth $1.2 billion at the high last year.
@Ian Krasnow He could have bought Twitter with that money and still had a few billion to spare. You get that rich, you're untouchable. Just ask mElon.
@Matt Muoio El Chapo bested both of them.
I do love the judges statement in this…still the guy does deserve some mercy. It’s disgusting that the corrupt cops-actual sworn peace officers, got off SO much more lightly.
Sad state of affairs when selling drugs gets you life in prison and people who abuse children get next to nothing.
@iUseDemFrapz except he wasn't charged for any of that. Why do you blame him for the OD? He sold psilocybin, you CAN NOT od on psilocybin, open a book KID.
yeah its just a simple act of selling drugs not being a drug kingpin and hiring hitmen to kill people XDDD. He's such a good and innocent guy surely has not at all contributed to people ruining their lives through addictions and probably hundreds of overdoses.
Really shows how $$ matters more than morals to our institutions
This actually sounds like a legitimate business based on his admirations and the problem he was trying to solve (for the first 5-minutes of the video)
The fact that this drug empire had two formal officials, who were placed to actually expose the drug empire, become apart of it in a way is kinda crazy how much money can make people move. And Ross had his life ahead of him but only saw the light instead of the tunnel he had to walk through. That light blinded him
I chatted with Ross a few times, due to a support ticket I submitted early on during TSR’s run. I only knew him as The Dread Pirate Roberts at that time of course. I’ve been clean now for 7 years, but I was addicted to oxycodone for 6 years, and got scammed by a vendor called, “New York Fuego” on an order for 20 x 30mg oxycodone pills for $400, which he never shipped. He was super nice and helpful. He resolved my issue and refunded my $400 in less than 24 hours and then banned the vendor who scammed me.
Wow
@linsqo piring The pharma companies have Congress in their pocket via hundreds of million in 'campaign contributions' and have probably been the financiers of studies claiming their products are not addictive or lead to addiction. Once dark money is out of politics a lot of problems will fix themselves.
@Simon B89 Two questions. Weren't you scared buying from that site when the sellers and admins could be anonymous but you had to give some real info in order to get the product shipped to you? And from this video some buyers came face to face with the cops for this very reason. And everyone talks about the dangers of doctors starting people on addictions through prescription drugs, but what about the other side of that? I've heard a lot of horror stories of people who have legit needs for pain killers who can't get it now because doctors are kept track of how many narcotics the prescribe and are under tremendous pressure to lower it. Someone pointed out that the number of people who become addicted is a tiny minority but almost all of us will need pain meds at some point in our life. I don't think from what you wrote you're totally against pain meds, just that it was handled really badly in your case.
Well done, Cindy! My first foray into what happened to Silk Road and you presented a succinct and informative narration.
He was not playing with violence only with codes but got life in prison. That's crazy
This was a really good piece of journalism. Like a high quality video you never see from big media.
This was very informative. Thank you for putting this together!
You did a fantastic job of summarizing and presenting the information.
Really enjoyed watching this. You won a new subscriber. Very well put together, well done.
The irony of authorities breaking the law to catch people breaking the law is as disgusting as it is delicious.
I was hesitant at first to watch this clip, but I'm very glad I did because the story itself was fascinating and the production of it was superb. That aside, I cringed at the "life sentence" he got because I was expecting 30 to 40 years, max.
as soon as i saw it was a female judge talking about "privilege" i knew it would be bad news
thank you, this content is very helpful and very well explained, hopefully it can grow
It's insane that he got two life sentences for essentially making a deep web ebay.
@kik locus that would be relevant if he got charged for those hits.
how about the hits he ordered
Wonderful video. It never strays from the story. Good job. In terms of the sentencing, it seems harsh at first but then you realize the guy created a multi million dollar illegal drug market. What other judgment can you receive? He forced their hands. Plus there’s the whole issue of ordering hits like a mob boss. You live by the sword.
Great, super engaging story. I think that at least on a karmic level a person who was willing to order hits on multiple people's lives getting a life sentence is not unfitting
Having personally researched the topic intensely myself in an ongoing capacity, I am deeply impressed with the quality and accuracy of this report. Well done and thank you.
@nollieflipcrook .... I don't think he actually made any money from that...honestly.. I don't recall homemaking any money from.anuthing associated He was a Killer hedge-trader as d at as I recall
@trcs by running a website that was used for selling drugs lol what do you mean? Even if he didn't personally sell drugs himself he still created a platform for people to sell drugs
@Dave OneZero how did he make it safer exactly? Other than avoiding the law it wasn't any safer than buying drugs on the street. If drugs were decriminalized, and addicts had safe places to do their drugs and make sure their drugs weren't cut with fentanyl then that would be great. That's not what silk road was tho
@nollieflipcrook if you really watched the whole video or even knew about silk road before this video, can you tell me exactly how he made the money off "drugs"?
Grease ball
Great news story. Thanks for your hard work.
He had a happy childhood if he had an alcoholic father or a mother addicted to drugs he wouldn't be so supportive of being absolutely free
well, the fact that he exposed his gmail account to the public is quite dumb, he could've used a ton of private hidden email services instead
I feel like this guy doesn’t deserve life in jail, except when there is evidence he actually tried to hire hitmen. If not, I feel like creating Silk Road was…a mistake, but he shouldn’t have to rot in prison cell for that.
It's crazy to think that former government employees can get like 6 years in prison for stealing literally from the government, and people who sell crack, even small can get life.
@Todd with 2 D’s A drug dealer can easily ruin more lives than a rapist or a murderer? Do you think the oh so innocent drug dealer who tried to have 5+ people killed with hitmen is not at all contributing to people's misfortune?
@Swiggler Was that proven in court? No it was not. There is accusations but no evidence of that.
I've consumed so much silk road and Ross Ulbrich content over the years, but this video added information that was new to me. Great job.
“It is fictional to think of Silk Road as some place of freedom.” This is in regards to him making rules. So America isn’t the land of the free. Also Ulbricht created a medium for others to sell products that were potentially more safe than slightly modified molecules of a drug that made it even more unsafe. People are going to do drugs and we should ensure it’s safe for them. Ulbricht didn’t sell the drugs from what I know but nonetheless our agencies such as DEA sell drugs back to the streets. Double standards and an abuse of power. Let the man walk free.
The judge wanted to prove a point or make a name of herself cause this sentence was unwarranted
Crazy how he went though all these loopholes, just to leave something as simple as a username and email public. If he didn't do that, would he have ever been caught?
I guess he didn’t think it would blow up to the extent it did
"An agent who, in a twist, turned out to be corrupt" A corrupt DEA agent isn't a twist.
Sounds like it's something a DEA agent would happily take in mind while filling out the resume lmao
I remember being in middle school and watching youtube videos on the dark web and the silk road. This video was extremely inetersting i didnt know the rabbit hole was so deep. Im not lying when i say that back then i was expecting a stereotypical junky to be the owner of the site. I guess after all he got what he wanted..... a story was mader about his life.
Thanks for the well-put-together video! No gimmicks or delays.
He was such an amazing guy The firzt raid on his parents place was oddly on my birthdate - he truly believed in equality and free information. A true freedom fighter and irreplaceable.
Life without parole. That’s much longer then most drug dealers. Plus without the murders, violence that comes with being a major drug dealer. They wanted to make an example of him.
@Cherse Gems thats such a good point, good sentence for the lad
@Spencer G. Wow yes because he states he's against violence publicly on his linked in that totally actually disproves that he would ever do something like that! Surely the guy who lived a double life as one of the most prolific drug lords on the internet and kept this a secret from almost everyone he knew would be above ever lying or deceiving anyone! Also what is the double standard of using convictions and then dismissing them when its convenient? So because he wasn't convicted for hiring hitmen that means he never did it but the multiple life sentence convictions are just total farses because its inconvenient for your narrative.
very well said by the judge. It aint "freedom". It's ur version of "freedom" where u control literally everything.
From the thumbnail I thought this was Robert Pattinson lol
Amazing presentation, I was invested in the story from beginning to the end.
People can be so complex yet miss so much in life in the ways of joy, love, and amusement. Tragic story. Evil so tightly wrapped a good man.
i actually thought his plea to the judge to be released in old age was really beautifully written.
@Adel Fazelrahman True 😂 Yes, cocaine and heroin are so safe man! Those overdoses? Pftt! Those are the ones addicted don't blame the dealer, blame the addict! Ffs people these days.
@emil supermies Correct. The American prison system does not seek to rehabilitate prisoners. Only punishment with no redemption. See how Europe treats prisoners. Radically different. And they don't have the same crime rates as here.
it was written *rhetorically* well
in other words, beautifully manipulative lmao
Multiple life sentences for creating a platform for drug dealers is a bit excessive. What bugs me more than the drugs is that he wanted to help sell firearms to anonymous buyers. Also the DEA agents should have had stricter sentencing.
So far, all the channels I’ve watched that were produced by leveraging SkillShare have been superb! Well done. 👍🏻
It’s still so sad the government killed the Silk Road and treated the founder like an evil person. It’s our right to take what drugs we want and he shouldn’t be wasting his whole life away in a cell.
Thats a cruel sentence for the crime. If you think about it, he saved a lot of people being around humans they normally wouldn't be around in a million year's. Drugs are so misunderstood, it's not the drug thats bad, its the person who's taking it, you can be a violent person with or without drugs, just like you can be a non violent person with or without drugs.
I’m surprised the crocked cops only got 6 years. There should be even harsher punishment for those in law enforcement seeing as their job is to uphold the law. 🙄
@Likeable Cloud US justice system one of the best? Thats gotta be a joke
I know a ex cop who shoved a drunk guy down the stairs and killed him on duty. He left the body, came back and took the homeowners security camera footage. He only got 3 years in prison and now he works for a school district. Lol I told then I was quitting so they fired me. Hire killers and fire ex military stuff for a school district. Sound smart
The crooked cops got 6yrs and he got life, gotta love the “Justice” system.
You want to know why they did him this harsh? He cut USD out of his drug trade. That's the only reason.
In the US, you can fall from grace suddenly and the justice system can be implacably harsh. Ulbricht's sentence was and is ridiculously vindictive.
Fascinating documentary. So well researched, extremely well presented. Outstanding work
He was clearly guilty but to me the sentence was over the top. Life without parole was harsh.
He was a mastermind what do you expect? Running an illegal market place. A local drug dealer or a murderer doesn’t pose the same threat that he does.
he messed with government agency for a year that's why
@S B nah pretty sure there still people in jail over that financial crisis. As far as I understand there was considerable negligence, as in nearly deliberate so unless those people managed to turn on others, there were definitely convictions.
@Edith Boozy exactly. But yeah, he is a saint
@Rickphilly Also funny that nobody mentioned that kids could (and certainly were) buying off this site.
He made some pretty big rookie mistakes it was inevitable that he'd be caught
When the judge started talking about privilege I knew this would end bad for him
Well done Cindy ,for putting this story together.
The judge admitted her main motivation was to prevent ‘disruption to the social fabric’, rather than justice. Says it all.
Ulbrict should've become a cop first. That way he would've gotten a more lenient sentence.
@D. P. ... should HAVE....OF is a preposition, not a verb. 😭
@cane sugar Freedom of speech pertains to individuals and the government, not to other individuals!
@DrizzDaddy L
@DrizzDaddy There needs to be a higher standard for officers. Their crimes are far, far less damaging, if you go by the metric of how many people they directly hurt, than what this guy did (which funny enough I actually made a comment about that and two people had the damn nerve to say "What damage has he caused") but the difference is that these aren't just average citizens. These are officials that we need to trust to do the right thing. We rely on them to uphold the law. There needs to be a standard set for them to say that we have a justice system we can trust more than the average person...because otherwise what is the point? Why don't we all just become vigilantes and take matters in our own hands? The reason why we don't is because we can say that the cops will serve and protect.
I have a big problem with judge's sentencing and motivation. There's so many wrong things about it. The analogies made are just flawed and the sentencing makes no sense. Extremely harsh and unsettles me
I went lurking on silk road they sold everything and the site would always go down. There's another silk road up. Take down one and another takes its place.
This is my definition of being "too smart ending too dumb!" If you know what I mean. Wasted his glorious days but I guess every thing has a price to pay! Especially those illegal things he did. Nothing's forever mate!
quite insane how doing stuff on a laptop can get you locked up for the same amount as when you were to kill a bunch of people
The judge speaking of there being no privilege in the our(US) judicial system is laughable.
@X he went to penn state, not upenn. upenn is the ivy league you're thinking of.
He was literally the epitome of privileged. White, middle-class, Ivy League education and still managed to F'up his life.
He wasn't a drug lord. He created an amazing tech platform and drug lords used it. If you are going to comment on a person fighting for their life, get your headline right.
It is an absurd to give him LIFE on crimes with no victims
There are many more out there just like him. They hide in plain sight because people think a bad guy has a certain “look”
well regardless most criminals aren't coding websites and encrypting files lol.
That's honestly hilarious how he was caught, as far as the IRS agent just searching him up on forums.
I have seen many documentaries on Silk Road and you have included a lot of information that was previously left out. Well done.
@SuperFinGuy I wasn't responding to you but definitely look it up. It is the most thorough telling of true crime stories I've come across. You won't be disappointed
@Ariki Ropiha I'll look it up thanks, it just irks me that a channel pops up out of nowhere and somehow people trust it. Specially with these bot comments.
Listen to the casefile KZworld videos on this subject. Very detailed
@Joshua Thomas the video
what tf are you going on about?
Pretty good story and put together well. Awesome work :) Trust the taxman to to be the one to figure it all out lol.
3:22 YES!!! What you put in your body SHOULD be your choice!! This whole "war on drugs" idiocy has backfired so badly and cost the american people so much money...in addition to throwing innocent people in prison for exorbitantly long sentences.
1: I never understood the problem with letting people do drugs. People are going to do it whether legal or not. Which is incidentally the same argument for abortions. So why not make sure the drugs are as safe as they can be made and not laced with things that shouldn't be there. 2: he will spend the rest of his life in jail. But a corrupt cop and other officials barely have to spend 10 years in jail? How's that fair? He did even do the selling, he only provided the platform. 3: this was an interesting documentary and as soon as the IRS was mentioned I knew they'd get him, when no one else can get the man, the IRS can.
Very well done and interesting video, keep it up!
Excellent documentary; I thought I knew all there is to know about it, but learned some more. Despite having some very intelligent security measures, he made some rookie mistakes. BTW, the word _route_ is pronounced identically to "root", similar to _routine,_ _mousse,_ _bouquet,_ etc.; a _rout_ means something entirely different.
I thought this guy doesn't believe in institutions?? Why is he begging the (court system) for a more lenient sentence? hmm?? Glad he got his!