Silk Road Bounces Back With a Quarter of its Previous Inventory

It was bound to happen.

Image via images_of_money on Flickr / Requested Credit

It’s like a game of digital whack-a-mole. After infamous online drug marketplace Silk Road was shut down by the FBI, another one popped up to replace it. And after just a month of operation, the second coming of Silk Road, which is an exact duplicate of the original site, has managed to amass nearly 3,000 illegal drugs for sale, or nearly 25 percent of the previous offering. 

"Nobody ever assumed that closing Silk Road was going to mean that this was the end," acknowledged DEA spokesperson Rusty Payne.

Despite quickly picking up inventory, Silk Road 2.0 is hosting considerably less activity than its predecessor, according to the Verge. There are no official usership numbers to compare, but based on forum membership, it has managed to snag less than five percent of its original clientele.

[via The Verge]

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