TOP DRUG DEALER RATS ON BILLION DOLLAR ONLINE DRUG MARKET MASTERMIND OF SILK ROAD

A top drug dealer on the billion-dollar online black market Silk Road secretly became a police informant and helped bring down the site.
Under the alias ‘Nod’, Steve Sadler supplied thousands of people with illicit narcotics such as heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine until he was busted by police at his Seattle home in late July.

After his arrest Sadler “flipped” and secretly assisted police investigations, The Smoking Gun reports, culminating in the arrest of the Silk Road’s alleged criminal mastermind Ross Ulbricht, 29, on October 3.

ROSS ULBRICHT

The FBI swooped on Ulbricht, who prosecutors believe operated under the username Dread Pirate Roberts, at a San Francisco library and shut down the site.

“Mr. Sadler has been cooperating, working for the government for the past two months,” a federal prosecutor told a US District Court heard the day before Ulbricht was arrested.

But because of “unusual circumstances … through reasons unrelated to Sadler” his cooperation “abruptly came to an end this morning”.

That’s not all. The report said law enforcement agencies were originally tipped off about Sadler’s activities by yet another informant, a 30-something business owner whose drug purchases were seized by police.

The informant had purchased several packages of heroin from “Nod” and agreed to allow investigators to take over her Silk Road account to make undercover purchases.

The illicit marketplace was only accessible via “dark web” anonymity technology called TOR and purchases could only be made through the untraceable virtual currency known as BitCoin.

Sadler pleaded not guilty to the distribution and possession of drugs including cocaine and heroin.

Ulbricht maintained his innocence in court earlier this month. The case continues.