On April 12, 2013, the Drug Enforcement Administration confiscated ฿11 (then $935) “in Charleston, SC from Eric Daniel Hughes AKA Casey Jones,” reports Lets Talk Bitcoin. LTB is reporting that this is the first individual seizure of Bitcoins. At this point, it’s a tough tale to make much sense of.
There is no indication the Bitcoin protocol was compromised. ‘“Seizure” is probably a word used to imply that money was received in the process of a Silk Road sting operation, rather than actually seized from the bitcoin user’s wallet. ” said Andreas M. Antonopoulos, a security expert and Let’s Talk Bitcoin contributor
The story remains plagued by tremendous uncertainty in the details but Hughes appears to have been a Silk Road prescription drug vendor. Several Bitcoin users are pleased with this development.
“I’m happy to see this,” wrote cs702 on Hacker News, “because it’s a sign that Bitcoin is on the path to more mainstream US market adoption. As more US citizens get comfortable with and start using Bitcoin, US law-enforcement organizations gradually will learn to use it, gradually will learn to monitor its use by others, and, yes, gradually will learn to seize it whenever it’s used for criminal activity. This is not a bad thing.”
After analyzing the block chain, LTB speculated about how the money may have been seized. The DEA may have taken control of a computer with an unencrypted wallet or, more likely in their estimation, the DEA set up a honeypot selling account and accepted the ฿11 as payment for a sale.
Many unknowns remain in this story. LTB was unable to figure out exactly who Hughes was on Silk Road. Gwern, the man behind the web’s most comprehensive guide to Silk Road, did a bit of digging to find out more about just who Casey Jones was. He posted the step-by-step mystery solving comment to /r/SilkRoad. You can read Gwern’s excellent detective novel after the jump.
Gwern wrote:
Ah, a chance to show off my research skills. Yes, I know who Casey Jones is: he’s a SR vendor.
The DEA is kind enough to tell us “Eric Daniel Hughes AKA Casey Jones”, so, search results for “casey jones” on the Silk Road forums: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/182368464/2013-06-srforums-caseyjonessearch.html.maff[1]The major issue here is that “Casey Jones” is the name of a popular strain of marijuana (and also related to music); after ignoring these, I turn up two useful hits:
http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=169730.msg1211244#msg1211244[2] tree:
There’s iPharmacy that has great prices on subutex but he’s from belgium, and subwaygal and Casey Jones are legit looking but new vendors that sell subutex at good prices. They don’t have many transactions but there aren’t many other domestic subutex vendors.
‘domestic’ is in an American context, and we are in fact looking for an American vendor. The second hit confirms that there is a vendor linked with the name “Casey Jones”
http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=31412.msg361608#msg361608[3] blowdrobro:
Bumping this thread up to say that vendor Casey Jones (Truckin) is legit. Got my 20mg IR Adderall in the mail today and it was indeed US Phrama quality, exactly like he said. The shipping was super fast (2-3 days can’t remember which) and packaging was discrete and the pill secure and unharmed in delivery.
“Truckin”? Who the hell is “Truckin”? That post is the only hit for “Truckin” in the forum search, no hits for “Trucking” or “-Truckin-” either; no relevant hits in the SR search for “Truckin”. However, the SR forum search engine is terrible, so I resort to a regular Google search for "Silk Road" "Truckin" - which immediately turns up the user “-Truckin-”[4]
- Posts: 30 (0.082 per day)
- Date Registered: June 21, 2012, 04:24 am
- Last Active: May 27, 2013, 01:04 am
Last forum post 11 October 2012; archive of all forum posts: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/182368464/2013-06-silkroad-truckingcaseyjones.html.maff[5] Judging by his posting, he is apparently an active seller and buyer of not just suboxone but other prescription drugs as well.
All his posts link to his seller profile: “Casey Jones”[6] (review thread[7] ; no reviews). US seller, account is 11 months, in stealth mode, 100% feedback; note: 3 reviews left recently 16/18/29 days ago. And it turns out, according toDealerOfDrugs[8] today, he is still active as a buyer too:
This Casey Jones requested a sample from me a 15 days ago. The crazy thing is, he messaged me from his vendor account, and willingly gave me his entire personal address, not a drop address. I myself warned Casey at the time to be careful because anyone at anytime could blackmail him, and he pretty much dismissed the idea and said “no problem, I might start a alternate buyer account to start buying. I’m not worried about it”
While the connection is not that strong – there are tons of US sellers, it’s easy to have $900 worth of bitcoins for any reason (I do myself even though I haven’t bought anything on Silk Road in years), and if we were to check we would find many forums accounts which went quiet within a few months after the seizure – the actual SR account being named “Casey Jones” is damning. The conclusion is inescapable: the Silk Road drug dealer Casey Jones is Eric Daniel Hughes of South Carolina.
(How was he caught? No idea. It’s worth noting that when you read the -Truckin- posts, he mentions repeatedly buying from other vendors and even being scammed, so a controlled delivery is still entirely possible.)
A dead end while finding the above: http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?action=profile;u=31619[9]“caseyjonesuk”, 2 posts
- Date Registered: August 21, 2012, 08:20 pm
- Last Active: August 23, 2012, 05:22 pm
http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=27925.msg426641#msg426641[10] caseyjonesuk:
hey guys n girls first time online coke buy……LONGISH STORY BUT HAS A POINT ….looked at topix loads and thought might aswell chuck my money away ……so i bought 2diffent local g’s (mid southcoast uk ). both underweight 0.6 a pieace..nether looked like pics on google or here one for 60 one for 100 tryed a line of each on succsevive fridays both made my nose run and made me ill the nextday …so i put the remaining 1.1 together and disoved it in isoprop alk and filtered atleast half a g of gunk and crap ….when dry housemate thought somone put the cut in there for a buzz so he hovered it up his snozz……not realy any buzz he says and as a bye product im up half the night pissed on isopro vapors …..next night i put the remainder in beeker following the LEJUNK tech and 24hours later i had a bump whey a real buzz lovely but next day still felt like shit but noway as bad ………so i think fuck it i want some realdeal cocacola not some re-engineered stuff ..that im sure still has a little cut in …and after my bump weighted 0.22 so possably the pricest cola going …………so i came here …..knew it was about a while ago but thought far to sketchy ……im lucky enought to have private forums to use …but soft herbal sites only …..and thats my posion is a nice bit of bio organic herb ….but back to the point ….had a hunt decided to go for best feedback and needed a quickturnaround so went uk narrowed it down to LOYLDS BOTHERS AND dmtdoodeelsd. as others had some what looked like fake postive feedback and other real bad feedback …..was going for 0.5 from each but loylds whent down so whent for whole g from dmtdoodeelsd. nice speedy fast service great packaging full wieght + stuff extra stuck to bag ……looks the realdeal ecuse the layman decrip it looks like someones put tiny diamonds into a slightly yellowly whitey powder ……house mate who had a bit of both of the previous g’s ….and thought one was fine buy his standards ….and hes a geezer lol shared the risk and prepayed his 0.1 16quid ….i work this tobe 160 a g with exhange ect …16ish bitcoins …….he was waiting with unopened post when i got home halfday ….so i sorted him his 0.1 and he split it in 2 and sied this should hit him as hes going down the street ….he had it dident even get to the bedroom door before saying thats hit me ahhh thats how it should feel and whent off whisleing out the door and down the street …i had a mini bump and i agree lovely ….dmtdoodeelsd has made a costomer out of me …and i hope they stay good as thats where you guys want to go hunting
http://dkn255hz262ypmii.onion/index.php?topic=20288.msg426582#msg426582[11] caseyjonesuk:
yhey real coke not pepsi …quick turnaround very stelthy packageing bang on a G PLUS LOADS TO SCRAPE FROM THE BAG LATER ::). so very happy and even more happy that its real coke …..housemate chucked in for a point ….hes a geezer …he has lines off his boys all the time …..he had half a point and before sied that will kick in as he walks down town ….he dident even get to his bedroom door before saying ahhh thats how it should be ….and whent off wissleing down the street ..not before saying …if i dont get throught whats left with the mrs that he will very happyerly take whats left (am im a big stoner not A’s) and this is from the guy who thought 100a g was toopricey 160a g ish after hassle exchage money ….well worth it ….i myself am just cooming up nicely on a small bump …if theres a listing for it ild recomend you trying for yourselfs …..now off to hvae fun with the mrs. peaceout guys n girls and thankyou to DMTDOODEELSD
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I copy and pasted Gwern’s post in its entirety because it was available only on reddit as opposed to Gwern.net. Gwern, if you’d like it taken down and linked to or altered in any way, let me know and I’ll be happy to oblige.