Ross William Ulbricht is an American who created and operated the illegal darknet market Silk Road from 2011 until his arrest in 2013. Silk Road was an online marketplace that facilitated the trade in narcotics and other illegal products and services. Sales were anonymous, using bitcoin. It operated as a hidden service on the Tor network. Ulbricht ran the site under the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts" after the fictional character from The Princess Bride.
In October 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Ulbricht and took Silk Road offline. From Wikipedia
