For years, it was assumed he had escaped the Feds. But on Friday, 24-year-old Thomas White (aka Dread Pirate Roberts 2) pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering and possessing child abuse images and was sentenced to 5 years and 4 months in prison.

The original Silk Road was set up in 2011 and traded in everything illegal – from drugs to child abuse images to weapons and even contract killings – but the site collapsed in October 2013 when Ulbricht was arrested at a public library in San Francisco following a massive FBI investigation.

That’s when Thomas White, along with a number of former administrators of Silk Road, decided to set up a new version of the site. Within a month Silk Road 2 was up.

But the admins underestimated the extent of law enforcement’s intel on the original site and in less than a year, this second incarnation was also taken down when another San Franciscan, Blake Benthall was arrested. Soon after, another member of the team – Brian Farrell – was cuffed and later charged in Seattle. Another, Gary Davis, was captured in Ireland; and another in Australia.

None of those men – all of them in their mid-20s – were the driving force behind the second site however. Without any news of Dread Pirate Roberts 2’s arrest, many assumed that he had managed to stay out of the FBI’s clutches.

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