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A comment on The Rise and Fall of Silk Road. Parent comment

Re:The Rise and Fall of Silk Road by tptacek on Tuesday April 28, 2015 @02:41PM (#9454342)
It does not seem likely that evidence predicated on an unsolicited drug shipment from USPS would survive in court.
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Re:The Rise and Fall of Silk Road by fweespeech on Tuesday April 28, 2015 @03:37PM (#9454631)
http://theadvocate.com/home/7031641-125/postal-investigators...

> “The trick is figuring out who’s supposed to receive it,” said Chief Deputy Tony Bacala of the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office, whose deputies arrested a St. Amant man in June after he accepted a package containing marijuana.

> From there, law enforcement officials arranged for a “controlled delivery” of the package to Allen and later found marijuana, equipment used to cultivate marijuana and steroids during a search of his residence, authorities said.

They don't seem to concerned about that part.

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Re:The Rise and Fall of Silk Road by simplicio on Tuesday April 28, 2015 @04:10PM (#9454834)
Those weren't "unsolicited". The Feds intercepted them, and than let the delivery go through. But the packages originated with the Suspects business partners, not the Feds.

The original article is annoyingly unclear, but I'm pretty sure that's the case with Green as well. The Feds didn't send a fake package, they just followed a package they'd interecpted.

I don't really think there's a problem with this practice. Having a bunch of packages with drugs addressed to particular residence seems like reasonable grounds to get a search warrant for that residence.

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Re:The Rise and Fall of Silk Road by fweespeech on Tuesday April 28, 2015 @05:54PM (#9455359)
The problem is, they aren't really proving they are "solicited". They are just proving they were sent to an address.

I can ship 5 packages to your address and it'd trigger the search is the standard of evidence they are using. Its how people have been swatted.

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/06/the-fly-has-been-swatted/

http://www.vice.com/read/i-interviewed-the-fraudster-who-fra...

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/07/mail-from-the-velvet-cybe...

The only reason he didn't get swatted again was because he called the police because before it happened because he was monitoring the people. [Hint: He has been swatted before]

This is precisely why this "standard of evidence" is such bullshit. It can be used to harass anyone and is.

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Re:The Rise and Fall of Silk Road by smitherfield on Tuesday April 28, 2015 @04:27PM (#9454942)
Not unsolicited; it was a package he ordered and the police intercepted.
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Re:The Rise and Fall of Silk Road by slowmotiony on Tuesday April 28, 2015 @04:49PM (#9455068)
So if I really hate my ex, I can just ship her drugs in a shitty package and tip the postal office? Is that really all it would take?
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Re:The Rise and Fall of Silk Road by tptacek on Tuesday April 28, 2015 @05:14PM (#9455199)
To get your house searched? If there's something your ex knows they might find, she could just tell them about it; that would also be PC for a search.
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Re:The Rise and Fall of Silk Road by amishforkfight on Tuesday April 28, 2015 @07:06PM (#9455645)
This is essentially what 'swatting' is.
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Re:The Rise and Fall of Silk Road by paulajohnson on Wednesday April 29, 2015 @03:05AM (#9456826)
As I understand it the point isn't to prosecute for those drugs, as the recipient would have the defence of no guilty knowledge. Instead its to justify the search warrant, which merely requires probable cause that the drugs are on site.
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