Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht sentenced to life in prison over creation of 'dark web' marketplace

Online marketplace became a black market for drugs, guns and other illegal activity

Ross Ulbricht (Silk Road)

Ross Ulbricht, the founder of the infamous Silk Road internet marketplace, has been sentenced to life in prison by a Manhattan judge, nearly four months after he was found guilty on all counts, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Ulbricht, 30, ran Silk Road, an online black market where users could anonymously buy drugs, weapons and other illicit goods, from 2011 until 2013, when he was caught at a San Francisco library logged into the website.

The defence claimed that Ulbricht started Silk Road as an economic experiment, but handed it off to others after a few months, before being lured back to the site to be set up as a fall guy when prosecutors were closing in.

Vice News reported that Ulbricht’s family plans to appeal the sentencing.