Irish fella accused of being Silk Road admin ‘Libertas’ hauled to US

July 16, 2018 TH Author

US prosecutors have extradited an Irish man to America, where he will face charges of allegedly helping run the infamous Silk Road drugs e-souk.

The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York said that 30-year-old Gary Davis, who went by the handle Libertas on the underground cyber-bazaar, is accused of conspiracy to distribute narcotics, conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He faces life in prison if convicted on all charges.

According to prosecutors, from June through October of 2013, Davis was one of three people who performed day to day admin and forum moderation duties for Silk Road boss Ross Ulbricht. This included customer support and dispute resolutions as well as enforcement of what few rules there were in the anonymous crime market. In exchange, prosecutors claimed, Davis received a weekly salary from Ulbricht that, over the course of a year, would have fallen between $50,000 and $75,000.

Davis has been held in Ireland since his 2014 arrest by authorities there. Having now been extradited, his next stop will be in the Manhattan Federal Court to face trial.

“Gary Davis allegedly served as an administrator who helped run the Silk Road, a secret online marketplace for illegal drugs, hacking services, and an assortment of other criminal activities,” said Geoffrey Berman, Manhattan US Attorney General, on Friday.

“Thanks to our partner agencies here and abroad, Davis now faces justice in an American court.”

Davis is one of three Silk Road admins named in a 2013 indictment. Two other men, Andrew Michael Jones of Virginia and Peter Philip Nash of Australia, were hit with the same charges and both agreed to plead guilty – Jones in 2014 and Nash in 2015.

Ulbricht was sentenced to life without parole in 2015, though he has been trying to appeal that sentence. ®

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