Ross W Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, a notorious online marketplace for the sale of heroin, cocaine, LSD and other illegal drugs, was sentenced to life in prison Friday in US District Court in Manhattan.
Ulbricht (31) was sentenced by Judge Katherine B Forrest for his role as what prosecutors described as "the kingpin of a worldwide digital drug-trafficking enterprise."
Ulbricht’s high-tech novel drug bazaar operated in a hidden part of the Internet sometimes known as the Dark Web, which allowed deals to be made anonymously and out of the reach of law enforcement. In Silk Road‘s nearly three years of operation, more than 1.5 million transactions were carried out involving several thousand seller accounts and more than 100,000 buyer accounts, the authorities have said.
Prosecutors said Ulbricht “developed a blueprint for a new way to use the Internet to undermine the law and facilitate criminal transactions.”
Judge Forrest echoed that message. “What you did was unprecedented,“ she told Ulbricht, “and in breaking that ground as the first person,“ he had to pay the consequences.
Ulbricht was convicted in February on charges that included engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and distributing narcotics on the Internet.
"Make no mistake, Ulbricht was a drug dealer and criminal profiteer who exploited people's addictions and contributed to the deaths of at least six young people," Preet Bharara, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.
Ulbricht, wearing dark blue jail garb, sat quietly between two of his lawyers, Joshua L Dratel and Lindsay A Lewis, during the proceeding, and later addressed the judge.
“I remember clearly why I created the Silk Road,“ Ulbricht said. “I wanted to empower people to be able to make choices in their lives, for themselves and to have privacy and anonymity.
“I’m not saying that because I want to justify anything that’s happened. I just want to set the record straight, because from my point of view, I’m not a self-centered sociopathic person that was trying to express some kind of inner badness. I just made some very serious mistakes.”
The judge also ordered Ulbricht to forfeit $184 million. He showed no emotion as the life sentence was imposed.