Pubdate: Sat, 30 May 2015
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.utsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area.

FOUNDER OF DRUG SALES SITE GETS LIFE IN PRISON

NEW YORK (AP) - A San Francisco man who created the online 
drug-selling site Silk Road was sentenced Friday to life in prison by 
a judge who cited six deaths that resulted from drugs bought on his 
website and five people he tried to have killed.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest told 31-year-old Ross Ulbricht 
that he was a criminal even though he doesn't fit the typical profile 
- - he has two college degrees - and she brushed aside his attempt to 
characterize the business as a big mistake.

"It was a carefully planned life's work. It was your opus," she said. 
"You are no better a person than any other drug dealer."

Forrest said the sentence was necessary to show others who might 
follow his path that there are "very serious consequences." She also 
ordered him to forfeit $183 million, the total of drug and fake ID 
sales documented in Silk Road records.

Prosecutors had not asked for a life sentence, saying only they 
wanted a prison term longer than the 20-year minimum.
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