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Silk Road seizure

October 2013, Darknet market
Led by Federal Bureau of Investigation

Verified core entry, last reviewed August 21, 2026

What was taken down?

Hidden service and servers seized; site replaced with seizure banner; approximately 173,991 BTC ultimately seized across 2013 and later actions.[1][3]

See what happened

What happened to the people?

Officials reported 1 charged, 1 apprehended, and 1 convicted.
1 charged, 1 apprehended, and 1 convicted named in the public record.
Group accounted for: Likely complete

See people and accountability

Did it stay down?

After this action the service returned under a new name, first seen November 2013. The replacement was itself seized in a later action. High confidence in the link between the two.

See what happened afterward

FBI seized the Silk Road Tor hidden service and its supporting servers, replacing the site with a seizure notice, and arrested founder Ross Ulbricht in San Francisco.[1][3]

Announced October 2, 2013.

Date
October 1 to October 2, 2013
Target
Silk Road, tor hidden service marketplace
Activity
Darknet market, Fraud and stolen data, Cryptocurrency laundering
Operational lead
FBI
Partners
USAO-SDNY, DEA, and 1 more[1]
Jurisdiction
United States and Iceland
Outcome
Hidden service and servers seized; site replaced with seizure banner; approximately 173,991 BTC ultimately seized across 2013 and later actions.
Status
Completed
Legal mechanism
US seizure and arrest warrants, Southern District of New York
Group accounted for
Likely complete

Infrastructure

1 onion service seized. Servers seized and cryptocurrency wallets seized, with no count in the record.

1
onion service seized
Identifier Recorded as Status Notes
silkroadvb5piz3r[.]onion 1 onion service Seized Primary Silk Road hidden service, replaced with an FBI seizure notice.[1]
Not published Server Seized, Iceland Servers supporting the marketplace, reported to include infrastructure in Iceland. Exact count not published.[1]
Not published Cryptocurrency wallet Seized, United States Bitcoin seized in the 2013 action; a much larger tranche of approximately 69,370 BTC was separately seized in November 2020.[1]

Domains and onion addresses are shown defanged. Where the record gives a count but no identifier, the count is shown in place of one. This list carries only what appears in the cited sources.

1
charged
1
apprehended
1
convicted

Named in the public record: 1 charged, 1 apprehended, and 1 convicted.

Figures count individuals named in charging documents and official statements, each person once per outcome. People alleged to be involved but not publicly identified are not counted.

Reported and named. Officials reported 1 charged, 1 apprehended, and 1 convicted. 1 charged, 1 apprehended, and 1 convicted named in the public record. The two figures come from different places and are never added together. Officials publish a headline total, and this index counts only the individuals it can name from the cited record.
Person Role Current public status
Founder and sole controlling administrator of Silk Road ArrestedChargedConvictedSentencedReleased
Charging authority
United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York
Main charges
Narcotics trafficking conspiracy; Continuing criminal enterprise; Computer hacking conspiracy; Money laundering conspiracy
Case number
Not established in the public record
Arresting authority
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Arrest location
San Francisco, CA, United States
Extradition status
Not established in the public record
Conviction or plea
Convicted, February 4, 2015
Sentence
Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole plus 40 years
Segment
Core operator
Sources
[1][3]
Full record
Everything indexed for Ross William Ulbricht

Ross William Ulbricht

Founder and sole controlling administrator of Silk Road. Current public status: Arrested, Charged, Convicted, Sentenced, and Released.

Charging authority
United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York
Main charges
Narcotics trafficking conspiracy; Continuing criminal enterprise; Computer hacking conspiracy; Money laundering conspiracy
Case number
Not established in the public record
Arresting authority
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Arrest location
San Francisco, CA, United States
Extradition status
Not established in the public record
Conviction or plea
Convicted, February 4, 2015
Sentence
Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole plus 40 years
Segment
Core operator
Sources
[1][3]
Full record
Everything indexed for Ross William Ulbricht

Rows expand to show charging authority, case identifiers, custody status, and sources.

Group accounted for: Likely complete

The single controlling administrator was arrested, convicted, and sentenced, and several staff members were separately charged. No official source states that the complete staff roster was accounted for.

Single founder-administrator plus a small paid staff of moderators and support personnel described in SDNY charging documents; several staff were separately prosecuted.

See the organizations and roles behind this action

Ulbricht convicted 2015 and sentenced to life without parole; pardoned by President Trump 2025-01-21.[1][3]

  1. November 2013

    Silk Road 2.0. Rebrand. Confidence: High. Seized in a later action.[2]

    Launched approximately five weeks after the original seizure by former Silk Road staff and administrators, explicitly adopting the brand, forum community, and site design. Established in SDNY charging documents.

    Later action: Operation Onymous

  2. December 2014

    AlphaBay and successor market ecosystem. Ecosystem successor. Confidence: High. Seized in a later action.[4]

    Vendor and buyer populations migrated to successor markets. No operator, code, or infrastructure continuity with Silk Road.

    Later action: AlphaBay seizure

November 2013

Silk Road 2.0. Rebrand. Confidence: High. Seized in a later action.[2]

Launched approximately five weeks after the original seizure by former Silk Road staff and administrators, explicitly adopting the brand, forum community, and site design. Established in SDNY charging documents.

Later action: Operation Onymous

December 2014

AlphaBay and successor market ecosystem. Ecosystem successor. Confidence: High. Seized in a later action.[4]

Vendor and buyer populations migrated to successor markets. No operator, code, or infrastructure continuity with Silk Road.

Later action: AlphaBay seizure

Return class C. The class is a research grading carried in the source dataset and its scale is not published, so this page relies on the relationship and confidence values instead. How this index handles it.

Numbered markers throughout this entry link to the source that supports the claim beside them.

Official sources

  1. [1]
    Manhattan U.S. Attorney Announces Seizure Of Additional $28 Million Worth Of Bitcoins Belonging To Ross William Ulbricht, Alleged Owner And Operator Of Silk Road Website

    United States Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, October 25, 2013, Source grade P1

    Silk Road seizure, Ulbricht arrest and charges, Bitcoin seizure

    No address recorded for this source. Publisher, title, and date are given so it can be retrieved from the publisher.

  2. [2]
    Operator Of Silk Road 2.0 Website Charged In Manhattan Federal Court

    United States Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, November 6, 2014, Source grade P1

    Silk Road 2.0 seizure, Benthall arrest and charges, seizure of additional dark markets

    No address recorded for this source. Publisher, title, and date are given so it can be retrieved from the publisher.

  3. [3]
    United States v. Ross William Ulbricht, judgment and sentencing record

    United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, May 29, 2015, Source grade P0

    Conviction, sentence, and appellate history

    No address recorded for this source. Publisher, title, and date are given so it can be retrieved from the publisher.

  4. [4]
    AlphaBay, the Largest Online 'Dark Market,' Shut Down

    United States Department of Justice, July 20, 2017, Source grade P1

    AlphaBay seizure, Cazes arrest and death, charges, scale figures

    No address recorded for this source. Publisher, title, and date are given so it can be retrieved from the publisher.

Coverage note.
  • The 2025 presidential pardon is a later outcome and does not alter the 2013 infrastructure action.
  • Bitcoin seizure figures differ across the 2013 action and the November 2020 forfeiture; both are recorded rather than harmonized.