Here's the article I'm talking about: http://gawker.com/5926440/are-authorities-closing-in-on-the-online-drug-market-silk-road Notice it's from 16 July 2012. Here are the relevant bits: Just over a year ago, we broke the story of Silk Road, the underground online market that's like an eBay for illegal drugs. It's been thriving ever since. But as the summer drags on, Silk Road users are becoming increasingly paranoid over a series of unexplained disappearances. ... Feeding rumors that something's amiss has been the unusual silence in recent days of Silk Road's anonymous administrator, who goes by the handle Dread Pirate Roberts. ... What troubles especially paranoid Silk Road is that DPR is usually a voluble presence on board. In honor of 4/20, he held a massive drug sale on Silk Road, which was advertised as including a giveaway with a grand prize of "a trip for two with all the trimmings to paradise, all expenses included." But he's only posted on Silk Road forums three times since May 6th. "Does anyone else find it strange that DPR's post count dropped significantly?" asked a user today. "I never payed much attention to it before until a friend mentioned that some major MDMA distributors from the NW USA heard about the operators of [Silk Road] getting caught. I brushed it off as a rumor until I looked through DPR's post count and now I'm a bit concerned. I know this is pure speculation as I have no evidence or reliable source, It just seems like something worthy of discussing." ---------------------- As you can see, there's nothing new here.