American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road

In Baltimore, Carl received a stand-down order on all Silk Road activity, confirming DPR’s arrest was imminent. He reviewed his overlapping schemes: By day, he chatted as Nob for his task force, but during off-hours, he secretly posed as Kevin and then the character French Maid to sell DPR investigative secrets. He accidentally signed one message “Carl,” then tried to cover up the mistake by claiming to be Carla Sophia. DPR paid over $100,000 to this French Maid character for more information.

Panicking that a live arrest would expose his corruption, Carl instructed DPR as Nob to delete all documented conversations between them. He then cold-called Tarbell demanding to see the seized server. Tarbell refused. Out of options, Carl hoped DPR had destroyed the evidence as instructed.

On October 1, 2013, Ross woke in his apartment and worked on the Silk Road. He felt discouraged: French Maid demanded $100,000 for a new lead and hadn’t delivered, and an employee who borrowed $500,000 had vanished. On top of this, Ross had a lingering poison oak rash. However, he looked forward to visiting Julia, who planned to pick him up soon from the airport in Austin. Outside, an undercover SUV triangulated his Wi‑Fi to confirm his exact location.

At 2:42 pm, Tarbell paced near a coffee shop after failing to stop a SWAT plan, obtaining only a one-day delay. At 2:46 pm, Ross left home with his laptop to find faster Wi‑Fi and download an interview about the Breaking Bad finale, “FeLiNa.” At 2:50 pm, undercover agents alerted Tarbell that Ross was on the move. Tarbell positioned his team. At 3:02 pm, Ross entered Bello Coffee but found no open seat and stepped back outside. Jared and Thom observed from a bench as Ross turned toward the Glen Park Public Library. Tarbell decided to bypass protocol to capture the open laptop and sent Thom inside. At 3:06 pm, Ross sat at a table and opened his laptop. At 3:08 pm, Jared messaged DPR as Cirrus, asked him to review a flagged message, and confirmed that Ross had logged into admin panels. At 3:13pm, a young Asian woman took a seat at Ross’s table, and at 3:14 pm, Jared instructed his team to “PULL LAPTOP—GO” (298), but Tarbell slowed Jared down long enough for the staged distraction to begin. 

At 3:15 pm, the young Asian woman at Ross’s table and a man next to her (both of whom were undercover agents) staged a loud argument. As Ross turned toward the distraction, a female agent slid his open Samsung laptop away, and Tarbell restrained and handcuffed Ross. Library patrons began to defend Ross, who appeared to be doing nothing more than working on his laptop when the agents arrived.

Thom secured the still-open machine, which showed the Silk Road support interface and the Mastermind admin page with DPR in a chat. Nearly 30 agents flooded Diamond Street while Tarbell and Jared escorted Ross outside. Tarbell informed Ross of the charges against him, which included Ross William Ulbricht, also known as the Dread Pirate Roberts, and the Silk Road against the United States of America. Ross requested a lawyer.

The seized Samsung 700Z traveled in Thom’s hands to a mobile FBI forensics lab. Thom kept the computer awake while technicians imaged the drive. Agents searched Ross’s bedroom and found a handwritten note and two thumb drives. They created multiple backups over 10 hours.

Tarbell returned from booking Ross as the team probed for deeper access. Around 2:00 am, the live session died, though backups remained intact. In jail, Ross reviewed his strategy: He trusted his encryption and password, “purpleorangebeach,” believing they could only show he was logged in at arrest. He planned to claim multiple people had been DPR after he handed off the site.

For two weeks, Ross sat in solitary at the Alameda County Jail. As news of the arrest spread, Ross’s friends and family members insisted it was a mistake. Julia heard the news the next day and collapsed. After a transfer, Ross entered general population in a Brooklyn jail and met his parents.

Ross retained Joshua Dratel, a veteran defense attorney. The government offered a plea deal of 10 years to life, but Ross declined. Forensics had already extracted “purpleorangebeach” from the computer’s RAM and unlocked extensive evidence, including diaries, spreadsheets, and millions of words of chats. Prosecutors filed seven counts against Ross, including narcotics trafficking, the Kingpin Statute, computer hacking, and money laundering. Julia visited, and they prayed together.

The trial opened before Judge Katherine Forrest. Prosecutor Serrin Turner led a case built on Ross’s laptop: chat logs about drug and gun sales and alleged murders‑for‑hire, spreadsheets showing over $80 million in profit, and technical evidence about the servers and Bitcoin. Jared, Gary, and Thom testified.

Defense attorney Dratel conceded Ross created the Silk Road but argued he later relinquished control and was framed by the real DPR. He pointed to prior investigative uncertainty and said incriminating files were planted. Ross’s mother, Lyn Ulbricht, attended daily. After three weeks, each side delivered forceful closings.

After cross-examination, Jared left the courthouse and walked to the World Trade Center site, reflecting on how a single intercepted pill had led to a global case. He decided not to wait for a verdict.

He flew back to Chicago to rejoin his family. As his plane landed, Tarbell texted that the jury deliberated for only three and a half hours. They found Ross guilty on all counts. Jared returned home and celebrated quietly with his son.

On May 29, 2015, heavy security marked the sentencing. Family and friends submitted pleas for leniency; Ross wrote that he regretted the harm he caused. The government called parents of overdose victims, including a mother whose son died after purchasing drugs on the Silk Road. Character witnesses described Ross’s kindness, and Ross apologized in court.

Judge Forrest delivered her rationale: The Silk Road was a planned attack on the nation’s laws, and ideological justifications did not distinguish Ross from other drug dealers. She considered the murders‑for‑hire as commissioned acts regardless of whether the murders actually happened, as no bodies were found. She sentenced Ross to two life terms plus 40 years, without parole.

More than a year after the trial, investigators moved on Variety Jones, identified as Roger Thomas Clark, a 54-year-old Canadian adviser who acted as DPR’s mentor. Clark had hidden for years in Thailand, monitoring Ross’s case and evading attention.

In December 2015, a joint operation arrested him in a small room. He adopted an old forum moniker, The Plural of Mongoose, during arrest. Reports about his past presented conflicting pictures of a dangerous criminal and an online manipulator. Authorities jailed him in Bangkok while he fought extradition to the United States.

Ross’s silver Samsung appeared at the Newseum in Washington, DC, alongside artifacts from infamous cases. FBI forensics fully accessed the DPR side of the drive, but the personal partition Ross used remained encrypted. That side stayed locked, as did Ross’s life in prison.

Ross followed a rigid daily routine. After the Silk Road’s closure, new darknet markets—among them Silk Road 2.0—quickly replaced it. An academic survey found many users shifted to buying drugs online, citing reduced physical risk, even as 2015 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showed soaring opioid deaths. A pre‑arrest video of Ross later circulated, showing him musing about lasting in some form.

Back in New York, Tarbell learned that Silk Road loyalists had doxed him and threatened his family. The FBI rushed his family to safety. Afterward, Tarbell chose his family’s security over the badge and joined a private cyber consultancy.

Investigators traced stolen Bitcoins and uncovered corruption by Carl Force and Shaun Bridges. Carl’s slip while posing as French Maid and other evidence linked him to $757,000; he pleaded guilty and received 78 months. Shaun pleaded guilty to laundering about $820,000 and got 71 months, then was caught trying to flee. Julia severed contact and built her photography business. Curtis Green received time served. Gary earned an IRS award, and Jared continued undercover as Cirrus to help arrest high‑level staff. Inigo, Smedley, and SameSameButDifferent were all arrested. Authorities ultimately arrested hundreds of people from 43 countries. The day after agents captured Variety Jones, Jared visited the O’Hare evidence room and saw a fresh seizure: a package with 200 blue ecstasy pills, a reminder that the work continues.