In early 2012, Der-Yeghiayan, an investigator with the Department of Homeland Security, began investigating Silk Road after noticing many drug shipments passing through the airport O'Hare International in Chicago, his official place of work. The photos and descriptions included in these shipments have been matched to the drugs advertised on the Silk Road website. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Der-Yeghiayan and his team decided to create an undercover account under the username “dripsofacid” to investigate the Silk Road website. During the period of the investigation, Der-Yeghiayan spent thousands of hours on Silk Road community forums and completed approximately 50 undercover purchases from 40 retailers in 10 different countries. These purchases were made using Bitcoin, as it is the digital currency used by Silk Road. It also seized several buyer and seller accounts on the Silk Road website. These accounts came from criminals who had been caught for illegal activities and had worked together to reduce their sentences. In July 2013, Der-Yeghiayan seized the administrator account named “Cirrus.” From here on out, he was able to report directly to Dread Pirate Roberts. He communicated with Dread Pirate Roberts several times a week. Der-Yeghiayan was paid approximately $1,000 per week directly by Dread Pirate Roberts. The pay was for running the Silk Road forum and solving user problems. There were three other forum moderators besides “Cirrus”. At this time, Dread Pirate Roberts was unaware that the "Cirrus" account had been seized by an undercover agent. Although Der-Yeghiayan was able to commandeer an administrator account and communicate frequently with Dread Pirate Roberts, little did he know Ross Ulbricht was the suspect. In September 2013, one of the IRS investigators informed Der-Yeghiayan that Ross Ulbricht is the suspect and a good match with Dread Priate Roberts. Then, Der-Yeghiayan flew to San Francisco to join the FBI team based in New York. This team was led by Agent Christopher Tarbell. On October 1, 2013, FBI agents and Der-Yeghiayan worked together to arrest Ross Ulbricht. FBI agents constantly observed Ross Ulbricht and his apartment while Der-Yeghiayan was on his laptop at the coffee shop called Bello Coffee where Ross Ulbricht often visited. Der-Yeghiayan continued to watch the staff chat, and Dread Pirate Roberts remained online. At 2:37 pm, Dread Pirate Roberts went offline from the staff chat, and Der-Yeghiayan was informed by FBI agents that Ross Ulbricht had left his apartment and was heading to the bar. Then Der-Yeghiayan immediately left and sat on a bench near the bar. Ross Ulbricht entered the bar, but left immediately because it was too crowded. Ross Ulbricht changed his destination to the Glen Park Public Library near the bar. FBI agents and Der-Yeghiayan followed Ulbricht and entered the library. Der-Yeghiayan's laptop remained on and he found a safe place to initiate communication with Ross Ulbricht. At 3:08 p.m., Ulbricht opened his laptop and logged into the staff chat. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay After Der-Yeghiayan noticed that Dread Pirate Roberts logged into the staff chat, he started a scheduled chat with him. Der-Yeghiayan asked Dread Pirate Roberts to check one of the messages reported in the Silk Road forum for him. Dread Pirate Roberts asked.
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