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Guilty plea in drugs for bitcoins scheme

Posted May 08, 2014 1:01 am

Associated Press

A Dutch man has pleaded guilty in Chicago to selling massive quantities of drugs for bitcoins via the now-shuttered Silk Road website.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported 23-year-old Cornelis Jan Slomp entered the plea in federal court Thursday in a deal with prosecutors. He will cooperate in exchange for a recommendation that he serve a much-reduced, 15-year prison term.

Slomp is accused of shipping 566,000 ecstasy pills, kilos-worth of cocaine and other drugs through the U.S. mail, making more than $3 million in bitcoins. Judge Matthew Kennelly called Slomp "the world's largest drug dealer" on the Silk Road site.

The college graduate and former software engineer was arrested in Miami. He had arrived on a plane from Europe to meet with co-conspirators about spinning off his Silk Road operations, authorites said.

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