US federal agents announced Thursday the arrest of the alleged hacker mastermind of an secret online "black market bazaar," accusing him of resurrecting a crime network that sold drugs and laundered money around the world, dpa reported. Blake Benthall, 26, was arrested Wednesday in San Francisco on charges of drug trafficking, computer hacking, money laundering and trafficking in false IDs through his website Silk Road 2.0, the FBI said in a press release. The website was the resurrection of a "nearly identical criminal enterprise" called Silk Road that was shut down by federal agents in 2013. Silk Road 2.0 allegedly started up in November 2013, just months after the original Silk Road website was dismantled. The FBI said since then Silk Road 2.0 has been used by thousands of drug dealers and other vendors to move hundreds of kilograms of illicit goods worldwide, and to launder millions of dollars of profits. As of September 2014, the website had sales of 8 million dollars per month, and 150 thousand active users. -- SPA 22:38 LOCAL TIME 19:38 GMT تغريد
