SEATTLE — A Washington man was charged Tuesday with helping run what investigators call one of the most sophisticated and widely used criminal marketplaces on the Internet.
The Silk Road 2.0 website allowed anonymous users to buy and sell illegal drugs, weapons and other illicit items. It emerged as a copycat site a month after the man accused of running the original Silk Road site was arrested in October 2013.
Following a yearlong investigation, officials on Saturday arrested Brian Richard Farrell, 26, who told federal agents he was “the right-hand man” to the operator of Silk Road 2.0. Farrell used the moniker “DoctorClu” and was among a small staff of online administrators and forum moderators who helped with the day-to-day operation of the website, according to a complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Farrell was charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. He was scheduled to appear in court late Tuesday, where he was expected to be appointed a federal public defender, said Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Seattle.