Silk Road Drug Dealers Call for Revenge Against FBI's Christopher Tarbell

Following the shuttering of underground drugs marketplace Silk Road, some members are calling for revenge against the FBI agents involved.

While most of the attention following the FBI closure of Silk Road was on Ross Ulbricht (aka Dread Pirate Roberts) the action also had a knock-on effect on many other people associated with the website.

While some have been arrested in the UK, US and Sweden there are a lot more people out there who used the website to anonymously buy and sell drugs, firearms, and counterfeit currency - and some of them are now looking for revenge.

According to The Register, Silk Road members have been active on anonymous forums calling for a campaign of fear against all of the FBI agents involved in the operation to shut down the website.

The names and address of the agents involved have been shared on these forums - which are only accessible through the hidden Tor network - with the so-called Elliot Ness of Cyberspace, Special Agent Christopher Tarbell one of the principle targets.

Home address revealed

The home address of Tarbell was posted on a thread titled "Crowdsource this: let's find out where Special Agent Christopher Tarbell lives." However administrators have now deleted the thread in an attempt to keep a lid on the rising anger among Silk Road users following the FBI raid.

A user called MendoHashMan wrote: "I think there should be a public list of all agents involved, names, addresses, pictures, family info, just make it known that we know. Make them look over their shoulder and worry about who is watching them! No violence needed, just constant fear!"

Special Agent Tarbell is the man responsible for hunting down and arresting Ross Ulbricht, the man charged with operating Silk Road for the past two-and-a-half-years, and in a detailed complaint filed before Ulbricht's arrest last week, explained how he had tracked down the 29-year-old Texan.

Is Sabu the mysterious Agent-1?

As IBTimes UK reported last week, Tarbell is also the agent responsible for capturing Anonymous hacker Hector Monsegur (aka Sabu) and turning him into an informant who helped capture other members of the Anonymous off-shoot LulzSec - of which Monsegur was also a member.

Some have speculated in the aftermath of the Silk Road take down that an unidentified operative - simply called Agent-1 in Tarbell's report - could have been Monsegur who is still to be sentenced.

Silk Road was an infamous underground website which allowed users to anonymously buy and sell a huge variety of illicit items including drugs, firearms, counterfeit currency and fake documents - even allowing you to hire a hitman in 10 different countries.

Bitcoins

As part of the website's seizure, the FBI seized 26,000 Bitcoins, the virtual currency which was used for all transactions on the site as a second layer of anonymity. These Bitcoins, which are worth just over £2 million at today's exchange rate, did not belong to Ulbricht but belonged to the people selling items on the site - which could indicate why some people are so eager to gain revenge on the FBI.

However not all Silk road forum members agreed with launching revenge attacks on the police or government, with Silk Road moderator Cirrus saying:

"We must stand on the shoulders of this tragedy that has befallen us and raise high what still remains - our sense of community, freedom and justice. No doubt we will all regroup elsewhere, and I look forward to seeing all of you again, still free and still engaging in free trade without government interference into your personal affairs.

"This is who we are and we are better than a mob of vigilantes. Most of you are aware of this and realize how much bigger all this site was than just a place to buy drugs. Until this site breathes no more I'm going to make sure we remain true to what we stood for."