Prosecutors hit Silk Road suspect Ross Ulbricht with new drug charges

Federal prosecutors added three new charges to the criminal case against Ross Ulbricht, the alleged mastermind behind the Silk Road online drug marketplace.

According to a 17-page amended indictment filed late Thursday night, the government introduced one count of “narcotics trafficking,” of “distribution of narcotics by means of the Internet,” and of "conspiracy to traffic in fraudulent identification documents."

Previously, Ulbricht was indicted in February 2014 on four formal criminal offenses: narcotics trafficking conspiracy, continuing criminal enterprise, computer hacking conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy.

Ulbricht pleaded not guilty to the previous charges, and he seems likely to plead not guilty to the new ones as well. His defense attorney, Joshua Dratel, did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment.

According to prosecutors, Ulbricht was in charge of Silk Road, “the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet,” which lasted from January 2011 until October 2013. They accuse Ulbricht of making “tens of millions of dollars, generated from the illicit sales conducted through the site.”

The new charges specifically concern the trafficking of:

one kilogram and more of mixtures and substances containing a detectable amount of heroin, five kilograms and more of mixtures and substances containing a detectable amount of cocaine, 10 grams and more of mixtures and substances containing a detectable amount of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and 500 grams and more of mixtures and substances containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine, its salts, isomers and salts of its isomers.

In July 2014, well-known Bitcoin entrepreneur Roger Ver raised over $150,000 for Ulbricht’s legal defense fund. In May 2014, Lyn Ulbricht, Ross’ mother, told Ars that she believed her son's not-guilty pleas.

"That goes for his father and his family. We believe in Ross. I’m proud of him and I think he's an exceptionally fine person. I'm obviously quite distraught at these charges—I don't believe them.”

Ulbricht is set to go to trial in federal court in New York on November 3, 2014.