Bank CEOs. Yes, if this guy is a “drug lord” so are they.
He was a wanna-be crimelord who paid for hits on 5 people, money-laundered, and aided drug trafficking.
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No excuses for attempted murder and money-laundering, but I don’t think those were the charges. There’s an awful lot about this case that stinks, legally. That’s normal for the GWoD, but doesn’t make it right. Why didn’t they prosecute him on more solid and ordinary charges, such as attempted murder? I think the feds are making an example of him, not because drugs, but because he circumvented the baking system.
They didn’t tack on attempted murder charges? That would have been a slam dunk too.
My understanding is the officer who was solicited/did the entrapment went off the rails on this case. Stole a bunch of bitcoin for himself. Was operating many puppet accounts that had not been authorized for the investigation. Was sockpuppetiing Mr. Ulbricht and selling police intel back to him…
That’s why those charges aren’t on. The witness is beyond unreliable.
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Yeah - we do seem to be skipping over that piece.
He shouldn’t be in prison forever - and selling many things shouldn’t be illegal. Some should - as anyone old enough to remember the “frozen addicts” from synthetic heroin will remember.
But - the whole piece of why this conviction is so important- but other guys from other communities don’t merit the same attention- and lovely kitten pics - probably bears some reflection.
a hundred times THIS. When I’m president, the first thing I’m doing after beiing sworn in (yep, right on that outdoor podium) is to issue a pardon for every person who’s in jail solely on drug use, possession, sale, distribution charges. vote for me 
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The secret ingredient is love, damn it!
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It’s not about “revenge” so much as prison-industrials welfare. Not that i’m a huge fan of Ulbricht’s, but the system does need extensive reform.
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They used parents of overdose victims against him?
If drugs were legalized and regulated wouldn’t there be more protections from overdosing? Aren’t overdoses an indictment of the War on Drugs more than anything?
Let’s take a look at marijuana prohibition, for one thing. Marijuana has been illegal for over 70 years, and what are the results?
*Today marijuana is America’s #1 cash crop.
*Today American kids can buy marijuana easier than they can buy a beer.
*Marijuana is stronger and easier to get than ever before, albeit much more expensive than it should be. To smoke casually from the “black market”, it will run you $100/month. This is much more expensive than it needs to be. More expensive than my cell phone ($20/month from Tmobile), car insurance ($25/month from InsurancePanda), netflix ($10/month), and gym ($15/month from PF) COMBINED!!! Would you rather put money into the hands of violent gangs and drug dealers… or into taxes for schools, hospitals, public infrastructure, etc.???
*Today marijuana is the #1 source of income for violent drug gangs and drug cartels who are richer and more dangerous than ever before.
*Guns are illegal in Mexico yet Mexican drug cartels are buying machine guns, rocket launchers, grenades, airplanes, armored vehicles, anti-aircraft guns, and even submarines.
*There are over half a million Americans in jail right now for non-violent drug crimes.
*The DEA has been having sex parties funded by drug cartels.
The ATF/DOJ has given thousands of guns to drug cartels.
I have this stupid thing I do called THINKING, and clearly I can see that marijuana prohibition can never work! America should have learned this simple lesson from alcohol prohibition!
This Ulbricht sentence sends one message - “Ok kids if you want your drugs now you’ll have to go into a dark alley in the bad part of town.”
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I hardly think he deserves life, though he does deserve to be punished.
A guy selling some weed to friends does not belong in prison.
A guy pushing smack does.
Let’s not pretend that all drug sellers and distrubutors are equal.
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I disagree entirely. I’m not going to pretend that all drugs are equal, but on balance, I think we’d be a lot better off with legal smack. I don’t think many people at all who don’t have serious existing drug problems would become addicts, and there would be fewer overdoses due to controlled supply with known potency. Addicts could be semi-functional members of society, and the ones that weren’t could afford to feed their addictions with a little panhandling instead of theft. There would also be less money floating around for criminals.
If you doubt any of these assessments, you should look into what happened when Portugal legalized it. I’m not saying they should sell smack at 7-11, but there should be a legal avenue for people who want it to get it.
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They are equal under the law.
And the problems of prohibiting any narcotic can be addressed that way. Prohibition is not working to reduce the production/distribution/sale/use of any narcotic. To date it has only made the markets more attractive to people who don’t give a damn about the law or their fellow being.
Should we stay the course, Captain? Damn the torpedoes?
Sir, they’ve started loading their torpedo tubes with people. Stay the course?
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I’d rather see the state give away heroin/etc to addicts than all drugs become instantly fully legalized without restriction.
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Instant full legalization isn’t something that most people who want change ask for.
It wouldn’t address any of the excuses for the War! on Drugs! Instead of a black market there’d be a grey market with more players & consumers would be exposed to dangers similar to those faced today.
I could accept it for marijuana, the market is vast and commercial interests would soon give safety, convenience and vetted products in efforts to claim their share of that market. No one would choose a shady dealer over 7-11 or the local liquor store. But lots of people would probably still support a local grower who offered a consistent product, especially delivered!
Things that need to be injected, cut, pressed into pills or otherwise distributed in amounts great enough to kill first-time & even regular users should see the same sort of reg often applied to medicine. I don’t necessarily -want- big pharma to replace Get Lucky Lou who sells shit he cut himself out of his van behind the Pizza Hut, but…
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The deterrent effects of severe punishments rely on the assumptions that potential criminals are rational actors (e.g. mentally healthy or not under the influence), are certain they will be caught, and are aware of the severity of the consequences when they do. None of these are guaranteed to be the case on any kind of consistent basis.
No expert I, but from what I’ve heard in the past (and the summary of research recently stumbled across here), severity of punishment is significantly less of a deterrent than certainty of punishment. And in fact increased prison terms can actually increase the chance of recidivism.
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To he fair, your phone plan and car insurance are reaaally cheap…
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I remember that night I got drunk and accidentally became a drug kingpin. 
While I might agree with you on other kinds of crime (bar fights, rape, trespassing), a successful crime like this done with rationality and planning - otherwise it wouldn’t have been profitable. If they were considering profits, then the potential costs of being caught must have entered the equation… e.g. how much money must I make to make it worth the risk. Sure, the certainty of being caught is a big deterrence (otherwise he wouldn’t have covered his tracks so well), but 5 years in a minimum-security jail isn’t much of a penalty to some people considering the fun that they could have until they are caught.
At this high of a level, he would be watched like a hawk. Recidivism would be hard to do, regardless of the punishment.
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Silk Road always seemed to me to be a “I wonder if I/we can…” project that gained its own momentum after it began to succeed.
I’m also given to wonder if this fellow or any others involved would have ever gone “kingpin murderer mode” if not for law enforcement encouraging them too.
Why not walk away from the little problems encountered when the bottom line wasn’t being trashed by it? The tech allowed it to be addressed that way.
“Wall Street CEOs aren’t druglords, so yeah. People get away with fines for civil fraud.”
Yeah! Causing millions of people to lose their homes, or ripping off investors to the tune of millions, or toppling the whole economy, isn’t like selling people drugs they want. It doesn’t matter if a few innocent people get killed in SWAT raids, if we can prevent one person from getting high, it’s all worth it.
Apologize to the bankers, you ingrates!
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