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