The Silk Road web site resulted in a life-without-parole sentence for its developer.
Here are questions for readers:
- would the operator of a site such as Silk Road have an edge in finding out the identities, locations, addresses, etc. of people buying and selling illegal drugs?
- if the answer to 1 is “yes,” why wasn’t something like Silk Road set up by the FBI and DEA, run for a few years, and then the database used to round up people who’d been breaking the law?
You may already answer your own question. The government would have materially facilitated and knowingly allowed crimes to occur for a few years. Without a much bigger goal (I’m thinking along the lines of Donnie Brasco) the public/Congress won’t see it favorably when disclosed.
It was, but it was a typical government technology project – they started in 2008, have burned through $280m and expect to have the requirments finished by 2017.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATF_gunwalking_scandal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheRealDeal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DarkMarket suggests that it could happen; maybe folks were impatient for quicker results?
Because the 3-letter agencies already run the drug trade and already know the identities, locations, addresses, etc. of people buying and selling illegal drugs?
Why ruin a nice, profitable operation when there are so many black-projects that need funding?