An organized criminal group
An organized criminal group can be defined as being a structured group that has between one and three individuals, which has operations over a period of time and acts with the aim of committing one or more offenses for material and financial gain. The organized criminal group continually works with the aim of making profits from illicit activities that are in huge demand. Cybercrime describes organized criminal activities that occur in the cyberspace. In the case study, the administrators of the silk road used a networked model since their criminal related activities permitted them to be disconnected from their clients and victims. The silk road was a hidden part of the dark web, which was invincible to regular search engines such as Google. In order to access it, one required special cryptographic software. The silk road had an anonymous interface where traceless payments could occur in the form of bitcoins that are a form of digital currency. The site allowed for multiple drug dealers and their clients to find each other in the form of e-commerce. Yes, Ulbricht can be considered to be a leader of an organized group for his role in creating the silk road, which was an underground service where buyers and clients could trade anonymously for illicit goods using bitcoins.
The silk road was a massive illegal marketplace where illegal goods such as drugs and arms could be sold. It was a virtual large-scale, TOR online marketplace. All such darknet market places can be categorized as being organized criminal entities.
Evidence presented in court linked Ulbricht to the Dread Pirate Roberts, who was the first silk road user as well as an administrator. The name is a pseudonym of a pirate. To acquire the identity of the user, the government`s team acquired DPR`s private PGP key, which was recovered in Ulbricht`s laptop. The key was an electronic signature where the users would have a public PDP key while DPR would have a private PGP key. The fact that the public PGP key did not change over the course of its life means that the same private key ran the site over its lifetime, and the culprit behind it was nonother than Ulbricht.
Further evidence was recovered in his computers, such as thousands of pages of conversation between Silk Road employees and journal entries that described Ulbricht`s as the owner and operator of the site. The defense, however, proved that other individuals ran the site, and Ulbricht only participated in opening the site. To quell this argument, the government introduced a witness who testified that Ulbricht as the owner of the site. The witness was known as Richard Bates, who had assisted in silk road`s computer programming issues. A conversation between the two revealed that Ulbricht lied to Mr. Bates claiming to have sold the website, and yet he runs the site underground.
The silk road was a new concept of a bustling online bazaar that gave users an innovative way of transacting on contraband anonymously. The site made use of software such as Tor to ensure it remained anonymous. The new breed of drug dealers using the silk road is relatively free from engaging in any violence that is associated with the traditional market structure. Violence has been used in the drug trade for the protection of market share, turfs, and resolution of conflicts. However, the virtual market place eliminates the need to resort to any violence.