Thomas White: Self-taught computer mastermind behind ‘Silk Road’illegal drugs website jailed

A self-taught computer expert who was the “guiding mind” behind an international online black market in illegal drugs has been jailed for five years and four months.

Thomas White was a teen when he overran the Silk Road site on the dark web after it had been shut down by the FBI, along with for possessing countless indecent images of children.

Sentencing him at Liverpool Crown Court, Judge Thomas Teague QC said: “You traded in illicit drugs and facilitated the trading by others in such drugs through the medium of a clandestine online marketplace, Silk Road.

“It had sophisticated security arrangements to minimise the risk of detection by law enforcement agencies and users made and received payments in bitcoin.”

White, using the name StExo, began using the dark web marketplace in 2013 to get a prescription drug employed for sleeping disorders, and then entered into an agreement with user MedsforBitcoin, in India, to become distributor as a swap for a discount, said David Jackson, prosecuting.

The agreement was a “stepping stone”, Mr Jackson said, and White upgraded from a buyer’s to a vendor’s account.