Alleged Silk Road Drug Lord Led Double Life as Entrepreneur

Oct. 3, 2013 — -- The alleged Internet drug lord who created an online black market dubbed the "Amazon of illegal drugs" by the FBI led a double life, cultivating an outward appearance of a clean-cut entrepreneur while secretly helping to shuffle over $1 billion in drugs via his website, authorities and his family said.

Ross William Ulbricht, 29, allegedly ran Silk Road, which the FBI called "the most sophisticated criminal marketplace on the Internet," where thousands sold cocaine, meth, MDMA and other drugs. The FBI arrested Ulbricht on Tuesday afternoon at a San Francisco library and the website was shut down, authorities said.

Ulbricht is being charged with narcotics trafficking conspiracy, computer hacking conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy. From February of 2011 to July of 2013, Silk Road did $1.2 billion worth of business, according to the FBI.

But members of his family have said that they had no idea what he was doing. His half-brother Travis Ulbricht told Forbes that he found the news of the arrest "somewhat shocking."

"He's an exceptionally bright and smart kid. He's always been upstanding and never had any trouble with the law that I knew of," he said.

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Ulbricht was even a public social media user. A cursory search brings up his

"Now, my goals have shifted," he wrote on his LinkedIn page. "I want to use economic theory as a means to abolish the use of coercion and aggression amongst mankind. Just as slavery has been abolished most everywhere, I believe violence, coercion and all forms of force by one person over another can come to an end."

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Ulbricht lived with René Pinnell in an apartment on Hickory Street in San Francisco's Hayes Valley neighborhood when he first moved to California from Texas, according to the FBI. The two have been friends since the age of 10,

While many questions remain about the seemingly double life led by Ulbricht, just as many are being asked about how and why he was caught.

At the time of his arrest, Ulbricht had his laptop with him, indicating that he may have been conducting business in plain sight -- literally within a government building. This could be a hint to what one digital security expert said may have led to Ulbricht's undoing: cheapness.

Digital Citizens Alliance Fellow Garth Bruen told ABCNews.com that he's been poring over the complaint against Ulbricht since it was released, and he said it seems the alleged drug kingpin's reluctance to spend money on shielding his dealings did him in.

"He made what I would say were extremely amateur mistakes. He had fake IDs shipped to his home address. I can't think of anything more bone-headed," Bruen said. "Silk Road sold access to private anonymous mail drops, yet he wouldn't spend the money to do it himself."

Ulbricht was confronted by U.S. Homeland Security officials in July after seizing a shipment of fake IDs that used Ulbricht's photo.