Texas Resident Charged With Illegally Selling Controlled Substances On Silk Road, Bitmessage
Orlando, FL – United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces the arrest and unsealing of a criminal complaint charging Matthew Jones, a/k/a “Caligirl,” “Dynamite2k,” “Dynamite`,” “Tyler Zeddai,” “Mateo Jones” (44, Dallas, Texas) with the illegal distribution of controlled substances. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. Jones was arrested last night in Fort Lauderdale. He made an initial appearance this morning in the Southern District of Florida.
According to the criminal complaint, Jones operated as the vendor “Caligirl” on the Silk Road drug marketplace and was among the top 5% of all Silk Road vendors. Between April 10, 2013, and September 9, 2013, Caligirl’s Silk Road account completed 685 finalized sales of controlled substances. Between July 11, 2013, and March 20, 2014, DEA agents purchased and seized more than 400 Oxycodone tablets and more than 900 Hydrocodone tablets from Jones. Jones shipped the controlled substances from Texas to Central Florida.
In addition to operating on Silk Road, Jones conducted his illicit drug trafficking business utilizing an encrypted and anonymized program called Bitmessage. Bitmessage is a decentralized, peer-to-peer, communications protocol that is used to send encrypted messages from one person to another or from one person to multiple persons. Bitmessage is specifically designed to hide non-content data, such as the sender and recipient of messages from intercept and passive eavesdropping.
A criminal complaint is merely an allegation that a defendant has committed a violation of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.
This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Orlando District Office with assistance from the United States Postal Inspection Service in Dallas, Texas. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David Haas.