Thomas White is an infamous byproduct of the modern technological jump that propelled big tech companies to their current glory. One of the creators of Silk Road, a prominent website where drug traffickers talked about deals and openly sold various types of prohibited or heavily regulated substances, was sentenced to 5 years and 4 months of jail time.
The original creator of Silk Road was known under the alias Dread Pirate Roberts. His real name is Ross William Ulbricht. After creating one of the biggest dark web drug trafficking operations, he was arrested and ultimately stopped his activities. However, soon after, Dread Pirate Roberts started his actions once again.
The man behind this alias was Thomas White, a self-taught computer expert. He was barely twenty when he started his activities and went on to create one of the most significant drug trafficking sites with a daily turnover higher than $500 thousand.
Thomas White was arrested in November 2014. When the police raided his home, one of the computers contained nearly 500 child abuse images – something that White had told Silk Road admins that he intended to use to set up a secure site for pedophiles – because they were willing to pay for it.
Journalists did not have much information to work with during the last 5 years. The case was likely a big deal given the number of drugs sold on this site. Thomas White also had another pseudonym under which he, allegedly, sold not only narcotics but child pornography and committed other crimes.
According to NCA’s Paul Chowles who investigated the case, there was enough evidence to convict Thomas White. His phone contained encryption keys and other proofs that White was indeed operating under the moniker of DPR2 (Dread Pirate Roberts 2).
Thomas White managed to make a big name out of this ordeal. After his arrest, he left the prison on bail and wrote for multiple respected publications like Forbes and Motherboard discussing cybersecurity and technology. He contributed to the Tor anonymity network and even talked about his involvement in Silk Road operations during his conversation with Motherboard representatives.
Thomas White was caught by the police thanks to his careless finance management. He received a payday loan which he used to purchase bitcoin. There were other bits of evidence pointing out that Mr. White was indeed buying and selling goods from the site.
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