The Plot Thickens: SR2's DoctorClu possibly arrested

Remember Brian Farrell, the sketchy SR2 vendor (or buyer) who was arrested in WA a few days ago after the FBI traced his IP address?

Turns out he's DoctorClu:

http://koin.com/ap/alleged-manager-of-silk-road-2-0-website-arrested/

officials arrested 26-year-old Brian Richard Farrell. Officials say he was one of a small staff of online administrators and forum moderators who helped with the day-to-day operation of the website. They say he used the moniker "DoctorClu."


EDIT 1: The drug charges brought against Farrell will be conspiracy charges, as him being part of the SR2 staff. This is much more serious than the previous "drug dealing" charges that were mentioned on Friday.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-2918824/U-S-charges-man-says-linked-Silk-Road-successor-site-drug-scheme.html


EDIT 2: The search warrant of Farrell's property found drug paraphernalia, silver bullion bars worth $3,900, and $35,000 in cash.

http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015/01/20/man-charged-with-helping-run-website-selling-drugs-guns


EDIT 3: Ars Technica published the criminal complaint, which provided a few new details: Farrell started at $750/week but eventually got paid $1750/week as a global moderator. The complaint also seems to imply that he was able to help LE with identifying others involved in SR2, but they do not confirm that explicitly.

..when federal agents asked Farrell if he could help them identify other top people who at been involved with Silk Road 2.0, Farrell told them "You're not going to find much of a bigger fish than me."

http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/5498263-0-14302.pdf


Comments


[23 Points] gwern:

That... actually makes some sense. Farrell's roommate describes him as popping pain killers all the time which is what he was busted for, and DoctorClu talked about using pain killers too. (Also, both sounded like arrogant assholes.)

This is really bad news for Tang and the other surviving SR2 employees. Farrell was nobody; but DoctorClu should've been safe especially after he was fired for looting vendor bonds.

Farrell was charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. He was scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Tuesday afternoon.

From the sound of it, this is now a federal case (explaining why my attempts to find Farrell in the King County Superior Court failed). Farrell hasn't popped up in PACER, but it sounds like his case was only unsealed today, so it won't be visible until tomorrow. (I checked anyway by his name and the listed case number, but no dice yet.)

EDIT: yes, federal case, according to http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2015/01/bellevue-man-accused-of-operating-illegal-internet-drug-market/ & http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-2918824/U-S-charges-man-says-linked-Silk-Road-successor-site-drug-scheme.html "The case is U.S. v. Farrell, U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington, No. 15-mj-00016. "

Earlier this month, U.S. authorities executed a search warrant on his residence in Bellevue, Washington, and interviewed Farrell, the complaint said. After being confronted with the fact that an IP address for the residence was linked to Silk Road 2.0, Farrell said he worked as Defcon's righthand man and served as his spokesman, the complaint said.

Are you kidding me? He talked? Look, it's not that hard: no one expects you to keep omerta and go to jail for 20 years rather than talk, but at least get a lawyer and cut the best deal you can!

Also, note that if this is DoctorClu, that means he continued to actively buy drugs and keep incriminating evidence around for months after SR2 was raided, his former employer arrested, and all server data seized by law enforcement. If he had truly 'cleaned house' after Operation Onymous, he could have brazened out any questions about an IP address. There would no longer be anything clearly linking Farrell to DoctorClu of SR2.


[7 Points] throwahooawayyfoe:

this doesn't bode well for anybody that's ever acted as staff on any marketplace.


[2 Points] Wordizbond:

People never cease to amaze me. You would think a guy working for the most notorious online black market would at least have the common sense to shut up and lawyer up. This moron not only collapsed like a house of cards under the pressure but proceeded to hype himself up as a "big fish" and draw an even bigger target on his back for his upcoming case. The fact that he didn't clean house and continued ordering just blows my mind, though.

Remember folks, don't be the low hanging fruit.


[3 Points] None:

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[2 Points] Vendor_BBMC:

I remember thinking, back in February, that Dr Chu was in on the escrow theft because he was telling lies about the way the escrow worked on SR2.

If the feds suspected him since July, why arrest him in January? This is a reverse-engineering of evidence. If Benthall isn't in custody as we suspect, he's singing like a canary.

I'm surprised he hasn't turned up in court to testify in the Ross trial. These are the guys who kept a crippled site limping along to squeeze more money out of it. They stuck to the forums because they were all too nscared to login to SR2 and do some actual admin.

I remember Defcon describing how terrified he was of the site he was supposedly running, and how much trouble it was to login.


[1 Points] None:

[deleted]


[1 Points] SecondChanceUsername:

Fuck him, deserves prison anyway.


[0 Points] myDNMburner:

Roomie rolls on him so he started squeeling? Hah