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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Roger Thomas Clark, an adviser to Ross Ulbricht, creator of the Silk Road darknet marketplace, has been arrested in Thailand [bbc.com]. Clark faces extradition to the U.S. and charges of narcotics and money laundering conspiracy:

A man alleged to have helped run the notorious Silk Road drug marketplace has been arrested in Thailand. Canadian Roger Thomas Clark is said to have been a key adviser for Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht. The US Department of Justice [justice.gov] alleged that Mr Clark advised Ulbricht about the best way to run the site and how to evade the police. The Silk Road website was shut down in late 2013 following raids by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

[...] The DoJ alleges that Mr Clark was a "high-ranking" operator on the Silk Road and was instrumental in helping Ulbricht run it. He gave advice about ways to improve the technology underpinning the site, boost sales and on the best way for Ulbricht to hide his real identity, said US authorities. Mr Clark was paid "at least hundreds of thousands of dollars" for this advice, said the DoJ in a statement announcing the arrest [arstechnica.com]. [...] On the site and in other underground forums, Mr Clark is believed to have used several nicknames including "Variety Jones, "VJ", "Cimon" and "Plural of Mongoose".

From the DOJ press release:

CLARK repeatedly advocated the use of intimidation and violence to keep members of the Silk Road support staff from cooperating with law enforcement. In one such conversation, in which CLARK and Ulbricht discussed "track[ing] down" a certain Silk Road employee to ensure that he had not gone "[o]ff the rails," CLARK commented, "[D]ude, we're criminal drug dealers – what line shouldn't we cross?"

[...] CLARK, 54, a citizen of Canada, is charged with one count of narcotics conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years, and one count of money laundering conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

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