Ross Ulbricht: Untraceable?

The kingpin of the Silk Road drug cartel believed he was safely hidden online ... he wasn’t. Nina Burleigh on the rise and fall of Ross Ulbricht

THE clerk read each of the seven guilty verdicts. He was standing next to a large window that framed the Brooklyn Bridge in thin, winter sunlight. That panoramic view will be one of the last that Ross Ulbricht, who had just been convicted of multiple crimes, including drugs-trafficking conspiracy and money laundering, will likely enjoy for many years.

The man who built Silk Road, the Amazon of what’s often called the ‘dark web’, took his conviction stoically, then turned and smiled at his family and supporters — young men and women who distrust the government as much as Tea Partyers do.