Senators Target Internet Narcotics Trafficking Website Silk Road

(AP) ALBANY, N.Y. — Two U.S. senators said Sunday they will ask federal authorities to crack down on a secretive narcotics market operated on the Internet with anonymous sales and untraceable currency.

Heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines are among the drugs being sold in the well-protected website apparently operating for just a few months.

Sens. Charles Schumer of New York and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, both Democrats, said they asked the Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Administration to shut down and investigate the website, often referred to as the Silk Road after an ancient Asian trade route.

"This audacious website should be shut down immediately," Manchin said.

"Never before has a website so brazenly peddled illegal drugs online," Schumer said. "By cracking down on the website immediately, we can help stop these drugs from flooding our streets."

The senators planned to release their letters to the agencies on Sunday.

A key to the illicit trade is use of a network by buyers and sellers that conceals their identity.

Websites including Gawker have reported on the site.

Schumer said the website began operating in February and uses "layers" of secrecy to thwart authorities. Sellers are told to make shipments in vacuum-sealed bags to avoid drug-detecting dogs.

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Flickr Photo by Michael Velardo.

Comments

[creed840]

09:22 AM on 06/07/2011

Most senators have no idea how the internet works, most have no idea how to secure their own web pages from hackers (just ask China), yet they think the can simply find "silk road" and close it down. It will just pop back up through redirects over and over.

[AndyWright68]

01:26 AM on 06/07/2011

No drug should be illegal. These power craving politicians are as ignorant as they get.

[iuriggs6]

02:48 PM on 06/08/2011

Yes, by all means lets sell meth at the corner drug store. Maybe some crack with your greeting cards and cosmetics.....

[AndyWright68]

04:06 PM on 06/08/2011

Exactly. If they were sold that way it would end the violence surrounding illegal drugs and the addicts wouldn't have to rob people to get questionable product. They would be the same as alcohol and cigarettes. They actually do far more damage to individuals than all the other drugs combined yet there is no one selling beer and cigarettes on street corners or having violent disputes over territory.

You hit the nail on the head.

[Pandoras Folly]

09:46 AM on 06/06/2011

Sooooooo......anyone know the name of this "website" i would likie to know purely for.........research purposes.

[jsgaetano]

04:03 AM on 06/06/2011

I'm surprised the US Chamber of Criminals isn't using this as a model for how they can launder all the foreign terrorist and criminal Goop campaign contributions they get.

[Verh]

08:29 PM on 06/05/2011

Huffpo, why are you burying this article? Put it back on the Front Page.

[osofar]

06:56 PM on 06/05/2011

To be a progressive in Indiana is truly an endangered species!

[super grass]

04:32 PM on 06/05/2011

So much for "land of the free" :/

[Nick Lyons]

03:29 PM on 06/05/2011

It's a good time to invest in bitcoin, 3 days ago it was $8 for one 1 btc...now it is double that.

[planetjeffy]

05:37 PM on 06/05/2011

it says that it fluctuates wildly

guess I'll wait a while for my silk road journey

[gwern branwen]

08:03 PM on 06/05/2011

It fluctuates wildly, but (so far) the fluctuations upwards have been much larger than the fluctuations downwards - look at any chart over the past few months.

There would seem to be little advantage to waiting; the most plausible way Bitcoin will ever be back at $9 (it's currently somewhere around $20, the $9 figure is outdated and probably from the research begun months ago for the original Gawker etc. articles on Silk Road) is if Bitcoin turns out to be a failure and just a popping bubble, in which case why would you want to buy any?

[roninkai]

03:03 PM on 06/05/2011

War on Drugs.

FAIL.

[ThirdWorldAmerika]

02:54 PM on 06/05/2011

Next time you think drugs are evil and destroy minds...remember that Albert Einstein; the greatest mind in human history, was a regular user of cocaine.

[Verh]

03:38 PM on 06/05/2011

As was many in the scientific fields. Drug use is often about novelty and learning, rather than depravity.

[kiksadi50]

02:49 PM on 06/05/2011

what it really necessary to say the name of this site?

[Anderson Todd]

02:27 PM on 06/05/2011

Funny how you could buy this stuff from the catalog just 100 years ago. Now it's the devil.

[kocean1]

02:26 PM on 06/05/2011

War on drugs has been an abdominal failure.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/02/us-drugs-commission-idUSTRE7511WG20110602

[Dave Harpe]

02:03 PM on 06/05/2011

Hmmmm. Maybe a lot of web sites like this one could put the street gangs out of business.

[Andy49]

01:35 PM on 06/05/2011

And the US has and will spend how much to put the genie back in the bottle. We are fighting a losing war? It seems to be just what we do now, fight wars that can't be won.