From: edward@gmail.com   
      
   The long road to freedom: What’s next for Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht?   
      
   The mother of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht has told of her son’s   
   fight for freedom, after he was jailed indefinitely for his role in   
   establishing one of the world’s most notorious darknet marketplaces.   
      
   Ulbricht, now 34, was the creator of the website dubbed ‘the Amazon for   
   drugs’, which allowed users to buy and sell narcotics and other items   
   (both illegal and legal) online.   
      
   The site was hosted on the dark web and boasted privacy and anonymity   
   for both its staff and users – until a two-year FBI investigation   
   cracked open the once-secretive operation.   
      
   Ulbricht was apprehended by authorities at a San Francisco public   
   library in October 2013, whilst logged into the administrative section   
   of the Silk Road site.   
      
   He was later convicted of money laundering, computer hacking, conspiracy   
   to traffic fraudulent identity documents, and conspiracy to traffic   
   narcotics on the internet.   
      
   Ulbricht was sentenced in 2015 for 40 years plus two life sentences with   
   no chance of parole – a ruling dubbed “draconian” by both his supporters   
   and his family.   
      
   Pushing for clemency   
      
   Since his sentencing, his mother Lyn Ulbricht has campaigned for his   
   release from prison by speaking at conferences and petitioning the courts.   
      
   Now she is asking the President of the United States for a commutation   
   of his sentence, following two failed appeals to the Supreme Court.   
      
   “He’s an amazingly strong person and he keeps a good attitude, almost   
   always,” Lyn told The Daily Swig in a telephone interview from her home   
   in Colorado, close to United States Penitentiary Florence High.   
      
   “He stays optimistic, he stays positive, and it’s intentional – he knows   
   that if he succumbs to bitterness or despair that it’s just going to   
   weaken him.”   
      
   “It was very devastating to have the Supreme Court deny his petition   
   because we really were hopeful,” said Lyn.   
      
   “But at the same time, now we’re out of the judicial for the most part   
   and into the political, and now we’re pushing for clemency from the   
   President and that is our goal.”   
      
   A change.org petition, which currently has more than 83,000 signatures,   
   argues that the Silk Road investigation and trial were littered with   
   abuse and corruption.   
      
   Two federal police officers were jailed in 2015 for stealing bitcoin   
   from Silk Road accounts during the investigation, when they had full run   
   of the site.   
      
   There were accusations that the FBI acted unlawfully by bugging   
   Ulbricht’s home without a warrant, and by accessing Silk Road’s   
   Icelandic servers without a warrant.   
      
   It also claims that there were multiple people operating under the Dread   
   Pirate Roberts alias used to run Silk Road.   
      
   Lyn blasted Ross’ presiding judge Katherine Forrest for handing him an   
   undoubtedly harsh sentence, particularly as others who were found guilty   
   of committing similar crimes are now walking free.   
      
   “The one I think that is most ridiculous is Blake Benthall, because he   
   stayed in custody for only 13 days – he was freed in less than two   
   weeks.” Lyn said.   
      
   “He was running Silk Road 2.0, which the government itself said was   
   equivalent, it was identical – they called it identical. It sold more   
   drugs than Silk Road, and had more listings.   
      
   “I’m not sure why that happened or how that happened, but it’s certainly   
   not fair.”   
      
   Post-Silk Road: A multitude of marketplaces   
      
   Lyn Ulbricht’s comments come as a report released by Europol last week   
   revealed how law enforcement agencies worldwide are struggling to crack   
   down on darknet marketplaces.   
      
   The Internet Organised Crime Threat Assesment (IOCTA) report notes that,   
   in 2017, at least nine major marketplaces were shut down, including   
   AlphaBay and Hansa.   
      
   But rather than solving the problem of online drug markets, Europol said   
   these high-profile closures have simply led to the formation and growth   
   of smaller vendors, such as Dream Market, the largest English-speaking   
   platform, which has seen a 20% increase in traffic.   
      
   Smaller markets such as Wall Street, TradeRoute, and T-Chka/P-int, grew   
   by 290%, 475%, and 840%, respectively, the agency said.   
      
   Those jailed in connection with AlphaBay have included vendors, buyers,   
   and staff. Some, such as drug dealer EtiKing – aka 43-year-old Jeremy   
   Achey – were sentenced to life.   
      
   But despite the US government making examples of these perpetrators amid   
   its crackdown on illicit online activity, the demand for dark web   
   marketplaces has failed to waiver.   
      
   Changing the narrative   
      
   Aside from campaigning for his freedom, Lyn tells how she wants to   
   change the narrative of her son’s involvement with Silk Road.   
      
   His defense claims that Ulbricht was not the only person masquerading as   
   the site owner – aka ‘Dread Pirate Roberts’ – and says that, while he   
   did create the website, he later passed it on to another party.   
      
   Lyn also wants to clarify the charges of murder-for-hire, which were   
   later dropped and never brought to trial.   
      
   “It still poisons everything,” she said. “It was never proven.”   
      
   Ulbricht was indicted with murder-for-hire after the FBI alleged that he   
   paid an undercover police officer to assassinate one of Silk Road’s   
   administrators.   
      
   The unfounded charges have also been a key focus of countless articles   
   and books such as Nick Bilton’s American Kingpin.   
      
   Lyn admitted she hasn’t read the whole book, but said she thought the   
   title “sensationalized” her son’s case.   
      
   “I have bigger fish to fry [than Bilton],” she said. “At the time we   
   were dealing with a Supreme Court petition, I couldn’t put my energy   
   into that. I just didn’t have the emotional reserve and the energy to go   
   into a debate about a book.”   
      
   Indeed, her energy right now is spent on trying to convince President   
   Trump to grant clemency for Ross – as he did earlier this month when   
   drug trafficker Alice Marie Johnson was freed 21 years into a life   
   sentence without parole.   
      
   Ross tweeted about Johnson’s release, saying that the incident gave him   
   “hope”.   
      
   He wrote: “I’m so happy for her. You’ve given many of us still on the   
   inside hope that there is some compassion and mercy out there for us.”   
      
   Created in June this year, Ulbricht’s Twitter account gives a glimpse   
   into his life in prison, where he discusses his day-to-day activities –   
   meditation, visits, and exercise – via phone calls, which are later   
   transcribed by a friend into 280 characters.   
      
   He also discusses topics such as his sentencing, mental health, and   
   criminal justice reform in the US.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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