Silk Road forums
Discussion => Security => Topic started by: throwaway123 on July 23, 2012, 05:33 pm
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So, my family got the news on Friday - my Cousin's husband was just arrested with a major grow operation. They also discovered a large amount of mailed MJ that they were distributing across the country, which they tracked back to a grow house. I have no way to confirm that they were on Silkroad, but I can't imagine they were doing web based sales anywhere else.
I don't know what their vendor account could be, but I'm assuming it would be a MJ dealer that hasn't answered any messages over the weekend. My family is freaked out. I always thought I was the black sheep of my family - my cousin was a total square - I can't believe she was involved w/ this stuff.
Does anyone have any tips I can pass onto them? I know the whole "Say nothing", but at this point they have already been raided, and have been linked to distributing marijuana via mail.
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Here is a tip. Quit posting.
Though it sucks your cousins husband got busted and I hate to hear that, though I realize it is going to happen everyday, we do not need post with a headline saying "possible vendor" busted. You simply have no idea and you are just speculating.
I would suggest you stop doing that. Don't guess at what might have happened. And no need to freak out.
Is your cousin hot btw?
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There isn't much you can do for them apart from finding out if they have a decent lawyer on retainer or not. If not, do some research and hand them a phone number for a decent experienced one.
You should also analyze the situation and see if there is any useful intelligence that can be obtained that would help SR vendors in future. But obviously you should tread warily, there's no point in getting yourself sucked up into the DEA's machine either.
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Pine, thanks for your help. She should be in court this morning. I'm about half the country away. I'll see what i can find out from her when bail is posted, and if I find anything useful I'll let you know. I'm not sure who they were on here, but assuming they were on here since they wouldn't be stupid enough to use Topix, doubt they would use BMR, and wouldn't be "privileged" enough to use a private venue.
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Hi, no problem.
The most important question is whether they were selling in RL + SR, or just on SR.
Because if it was just on SR then that's an interesting thing and you would want to investigate their packaging techniques, any other info such as that + any hypotheses she has developed as an explanation for the discovery. A simple way to interview the person is to hand them a prepaid phone when they get out on parole, and then call them from somewhere else with questions (in case you cousin gets turned into an informant). Then you throw away your prepaid, assured in the knowledge that there's no real evidence against you even if your cousin was wearing a wire at the time. However, you should probably give her a hug and a coffee first, since she's probably scared out of her wits at the moment. So long as she keeps her cool and follows the rules we all know without getting emotionally involved and starting the blame game, she'll probably be fine, especially if she doesn't have a criminal record. I can't say of course whether she'll do some time or not, but this advice still works to optimize almost any possible situation in your favor.
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If you find out that she was selling on SR or online, it would be valuable to get a copy of the complaint or warrants, as those list the official reasons for proceeding. Those may still be sealed. If those are still sealed, that unto itself is valuable information.
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I just got off the phone with another family member. The reason they got busted had absolutely nothing to do with SR or whatever service they were using to mail drugs. They rented a house for the grow-op. The landlord did a routine "check in". The entire house was filled w/ grow rooms. They are pretty fucked. The feds are questioning them on the mailing aspects of the operation, and I doubt they are the type to hold up well, especially my cousin - like I said, she isn't the criminal type at all and doesn't have the mentality most of us do. As far as I can tell, they were only selling online, but could have a few local customers. They were for sure not selling bags, maybe some local weight to family or long time friends. It was the check-in that got them, but they did find multiple addressed packages on scene.
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I just got off the phone with another family member. The reason they got busted had absolutely nothing to do with SR or whatever service they were using to mail drugs. They rented a house for the grow-op. The landlord did a routine "check in". The entire house was filled w/ grow rooms. They are pretty fucked. The feds are questioning them on the mailing aspects of the operation, and I doubt they are the type to hold up well, especially my cousin - like I said, she isn't the criminal type at all and doesn't have the mentality most of us do. As far as I can tell, they were only selling online, but could have a few local customers. They were for sure not selling bags, maybe some local weight to family or long time friends. It was the check-in that got them, but they did find multiple addressed packages on scene.
I'm guessing something like the landlord was paying their utility bills to be included as part of the rent, and he noticed a huge spike in the electricity bill. The No.1 thing that catches grow-ops is the electricity bill, which is why you are supposed to invest serious energy in examining the physical properties of halogen lamps and so forth to get as much light/heat bang for your buck. There's lots of techniques to lower your electricity bill to below average that the weed grow experts know about more so than myself. The other related thing is that the electricity company itself is paid by the DEA to notice electricity spikes characteristic of a naive grow-op, and could have contacted local police to tell the landlord to check-in.
Other possibilities are that a routine heat scan of the city by the local DEA unit discovered a source of heat from the air with a helicopter or by a car with the same apparatus. There is a video called 'How not to get busted' which describes this entire process I'm outlining here, there are ways to defeat such detection mechanisms.
Or maybe the landlord is just nosy. That is certainly possible too. You can do funky thing like setting up cameras everywhere, but most grow-ops aren't large enough to justify such things. Anyway, it sucks.
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Landlords are usually legally obliged to provide notice before inspecting property. Although US who knows what surveillance laws they have now.
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After talking with my fam, I'm 99% certain it was a case of a over protective landlord. If nothing else, make sure you own the property if you plan on growing, or at least have a REALLY good relationship with the landlord. In my state, you can grow a certain amount if you go through the proper legal channels, unfortunately, they don't live in one of those areas.
The current charges are as follows:
possession with intent to sell and distribute
maintaining a dwelling to manufacture marijuana
possession of drug paraphernalia and manufacturing drugs - all those are felonies in their state
In addition, they had a substance that is specific and I would rather not mention that landed them another felony.
My family hasn't gotten any info on the packages yet. I think it's being handled by a different agency, maybe Federal since it's through the mail.
They didn't intercept any packages, but found a ton packaged, ready to mail. Do you think this is enough proof to show they were mailing packages? I would think so, but who knows.
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Drugs have been mailed around since before SR or even the internet existed. People used to just find connects in other ways. I am sure you know all of this. A friend of a friend had other kids he knows mailing herb (any maybe other things) to his house for quite some time, turns out that source was being watched. Eventually a CD was setup and the house was searched. There were lots of mistakes and it was obviously not a good decision made but it was also the guys first arrest. He did not have to do prison time and I think the amount being sent was somewhat significant.
Anyways, your cousin needs to lawyer up. We have all heard it over and over again, but say nothing and ask for an attorney. Even if you cannot afford one, as a citizen it is your right to a public defender.
I guess also tell your cousin that while it may seem like it, his life is not over. People can get pretty desperate in these situations.
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After talking with my fam, I'm 99% certain it was a case of a over protective landlord. If nothing else, make sure you own the property if you plan on growing, or at least have a REALLY good relationship with the landlord. In my state, you can grow a certain amount if you go through the proper legal channels, unfortunately, they don't live in one of those areas.
The current charges are as follows:
possession with intent to sell and distribute
maintaining a dwelling to manufacture marijuana
possession of drug paraphernalia and manufacturing drugs - all those are felonies in their state
In addition, they had a substance that is specific and I would rather not mention that landed them another felony.
My family hasn't gotten any info on the packages yet. I think it's being handled by a different agency, maybe Federal since it's through the mail.
They didn't intercept any packages, but found a ton packaged, ready to mail. Do you think this is enough proof to show they were mailing packages? I would think so, but who knows.
If the Feds want that is enough evidence to get your cousin indicted for Mail Fraud.
Depending on the prosecutor's caseload they might decide to pursue prosecution.
Although at this point there is no evidence they actually put one of those packages in the mail, Attempt charges would definitely stick.
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So....I'm just pointing out, you never answered the most important thing in this thread, IS SHE OR IS SHE NOT HOT?
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Not hot at all. Nice girl, but repulsive to look at. Sorry fellas.
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Not hot at all. Nice girl, but repulsive to look at. Sorry fellas.
Fuck man, the judge is going to throw the book at her.
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It was apprent from the get go of the op that they weren't on sr. Just my opnion initially and relates to cpl other stories I've heard.
Sounds like they blew their whole game due to setup and dealings.
Land lord setup is major. Elec spikes/bills only apply to certain (most?) Regions, places. The major deal is they got caught with shit. Should have separated stuff.
hope they get off okay :/
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Correct me if I am wrong but the distribution through mailing (trafficking over state lines) is way more serious then the grow house itself.
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Not hot at all. Nice girl, but repulsive to look at. Sorry fellas.
LOL
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I just got off the phone with another family member. The reason they got busted had absolutely nothing to do with SR or whatever service they were using to mail drugs. They rented a house for the grow-op. The landlord did a routine "check in". The entire house was filled w/ grow rooms. They are pretty fucked. The feds are questioning them on the mailing aspects of the operation, and I doubt they are the type to hold up well, especially my cousin - like I said, she isn't the criminal type at all and doesn't have the mentality most of us do. As far as I can tell, they were only selling online, but could have a few local customers. They were for sure not selling bags, maybe some local weight to family or long time friends. It was the check-in that got them, but they did find multiple addressed packages on scene.
Real shocker is had nothing to do with SR...Now can you change the title please.
Sorry to hear about the bust. Never good to hear.
Glad other people saw the humor in my is she hot post. ;D
0 for 1254 sorry Pine ;)
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Not hot at all. Nice girl, but repulsive to look at. Sorry fellas.
Fuck man, the judge is going to throw the book at her.
amazing convo. god i love this site. its shit like this that makes it so worth getting arrested for...oh and the drugs 8)
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i watched a vid yesterday about some guy filming a dealer in usa and he sold everything in huge amounts and it was all sent to him from different parts of the country using fed ex etc .he said all the weed was grown in cali and shipped to him mdma from somewhere else ,its not just web sales that use postal service everyone from cartels to 1 g orders are using it ,
he said something about if the tracking hadnt showed up by 11 they just fuked the shipment off
drugs in the mail been going for time
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holy shit do i actually agree with rxking?
the world truly is ending this year
Not hard to agree with someone that is correct ;)
I just want the title changed. There are plenty of people that will read just the title. And of course will believe that a vendor from SR got busted. And I think that is bad for SR. I also think this post should be moved to OFF TOPIC.
LOL to BNW that said the judge is going to throw the book at her...+1