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Draft:Blake Benthall

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  • Comment: This draft, as written, does not appear to indicate that the appropriate notability criterion is satisfied. In particular, this draft does not appear to indicate that WP:NBIO is satisfied. If one of the criteria is satisfied, please revise this draft appropriately, with a reliable source, if necessary stating on the talk page or in AFC comments which criterion is met, and resubmit. It is the responsibility of the submitter to show that a subject satisfies a notability criterion.
    You may ask for advice about the notability criteria at the Teahouse.
    In particular, see and refer to WP:NBIO for notability, which is the guideline that the subject should be evaluated against.
    The claim of notability appears to be based on the second paragraph, about Silk Road 2.0, but that section is unsourced, although it is about a living person. Robert McClenon (talk) 06:11, 29 February 2024 (UTC)



Blake Benthall pictured in Denver, CO in 2024 during the ETHDenver conference.


Blake Benthall (born in Houston, Texas) is an American software engineer who operated the dark web narcotics marketplace Silk Road 2.0 under the pseudonym "Defcon." Benthall was arrested on November 6, 2014 by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in San Francisco as part of Operation Onymous, a joint operation between the FBI and Europol, aimed at shutting down illegal goods trading on the dark web.[1][2][3][4] He was released from federal custody on November 21, 2014.[5]

Benthall attended Florida College and moved to San Francisco in 2009. After working at several failed startups, including a short stint as an engineer at Elon Musk's SpaceX, he revived the Silk Road in 2013 after the original site was shut down by the FBI the previous year and its alleged operator, Ross Ulbricht, was arrested.[6]

After his arrest, Benthall spent eight months in the Queens Detention Center in New York. In July 2015, he pleaded guilty to four counts, including narcotics trafficking and money laundering, and signed a cooperation agreement with the FBI. His probation, along with his FBI cooperation agreement, ended in March 2024. He now lives in Houston and is a blockchain technology entrepreneur. [7]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Rushe, Dominic (2014-11-06). "Silk Road 2.0's alleged owner arrested as drugs website shuttered by FBI". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
  2. ^ "Silk Road 2.0 Suspect Blake Benthall Admitted 'to Everything': Prosecutor". NBC News. 6 November 2014. Retrieved 2020-08-15.
  3. ^ Cook, James. "Here's Everything We Know About The Former SpaceX Engineer Who Allegedly Ran A 'Deep Web' Drug Marketplace". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-08-15.
  4. ^ "Operator of Silk Road 2.0 Website Charged in Manhattan Federal Court — FBI". www.fbi.gov. Retrieved 2020-08-15.
  5. ^ "BOP: Federal Inmates By Number". www.bop.gov. Retrieved 2020-08-15.
  6. ^ "Feds Arrest Alleged Operator of 'Silk Road 2.0'". 6 November 2014.
  7. ^ "He Was an Online Drug Lord. Now He's a Crypto Entrepreneur". The New York Times. 24 July 2024.