Silk Road’s alleged hitman, “redandwhite,” arrested in Vancouver

Nearly a month ago, Canadian authorities arrested a man they believe to be "redandwhite," a hitman allegedly hired by Ross Ulbricht. Also known as Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR), Ulbricht created the infamous and now-defunct underground drug website, Silk Road.

Ulbricht is now serving a double life sentence. Earlier this year, after a federal judge ended Ulbricht's chances for a new trial, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in his case.

The new suspect, James Ellingson, age 42, was released on bail earlier this month by a judge in British Columbia despite American efforts to keep him detained. Separately, Ellingson allegedly made $2 million in profits from selling drugs directly on Silk Road.

According to a November 2 Vancouver court ruling, an American federal magistrate judge in New York issued a warrant for Ellingson's arrest in January 2018 on charges of drug trafficking. A search of American court records does not reveal any criminal complaints filed against Ellingson, which could mean they have either been sealed or not yet filed.

Ellingson's arrest was first reported by the Vancouver Sun.

According to evidence presented at Ulbricht's 2015 trial, redandwhite's involvement in Silk Road began in March 2013. Within a week of redandwhite's initial contact with Ulbricht, redandwhite claimed to have orchestrated a killing on Ulbricht's behalf. However, no evidence exists that anyone was actually murdered, which raises the question as to whether redandwhite was actually a drug dealer and/or was just trying to scam DPR.

"For [Ulbricht], it was trivial," then-federal prosecutor Serrin Turner said during closing arguments at Ulbricht's trial. "The click of a mouse, send $500,000, half a million dollars' worth of bitcoins, wait for the picture of a dead body. Thank goodness it does not look like any murders occurred. Thank goodness that this man's power trip was stopped before he managed to connect with a true hitman through his criminal website."

Turner, now in private practice, did not respond to Ars' request for comment.

Meet the cast of characters

This episode in the Silk Road saga opens in mid-March 2013, when a Silk Road user named FriendlyChemist began urgently trying to reach DPR. FriendlyChemist wanted to inform DPR that he had been supplying another user named LucyDrop and was owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.

FriendlyChemist then told DPR that he would expose the identities of "nine top vendors and 15 smaller vendors and thousands of customers" if he couldn't get repaid.

As Ars reported previously, DPR contacted LucyDrop directly:

Turned out LucyDrop had been arrested, and soon DPR was corresponding with a user named RealLucyDrop, who said that he'd been arrested and cheated by his former partner.

"FriendlyChemist was our middleman to one of our LSD distributors," said RealLucyDrop. "He is demanding I pay him for some deal he had with my partner when I was in jail."

Dread Pirate Roberts didn't show any interest in giving into that demand. "I need his real-world identity, so I can threaten him with violence," DPR told RealLucyDrop.

"I don't know how I feel about that solution," said RealLucyDrop. In a later message, he explained that FriendlyChemist had good reason to be scared. "He is freaking out because he truly believes his life and his family's life [are] in danger," wrote RealLucyDrop. "The people he borrowed the product from are a big criminal organization in Canada (Hells Angels—not sure if you are familiar with them)."

"There's no way I will be handing over cash to somebody who threatens me and this community," wrote DPR. He wanted RealLucyDrop to hand over FriendlyChemist's identity. "Don't bother messaging me again if the message does not contain his personal info... I won't be blackmailed."

Enter redandwhite, whose moniker refers to colors long affiliated with the Hells Angels motorcycle gang.

On March 25, 2013, redandwhite wrote:

I was asked to contact you. We are the people FriendlyChemist owes money to. He tells us that you owe him money and a long boring story about some of this and some of that. As far as we are concerned—we gave him the product. Where it went and how does not matter. We hold him and him only responsible for the missing product/money. We don't care if you stole it from him/borrowed it from him or anything. It was his responsibility to pay for it. He asked me to contact you anyways. What did you want to talk to us about?

DPR soon wrote back, offering to be a mediator in this conflict. But he also tried to entice redandwhite to sell on Silk Road. "If you don't already sell here on Silk Road, I'd like you to consider becoming a vendor," he wrote.

Redandwhite responded and claimed he and his partners had "a majority hold over most of the movement of products in western Canada." He seemed skeptical that Silk Road would be a viable avenue.

Just two days after redandwhite initially contacted DPR, the Silk Road creator wrote: "FriendlyChemist is a liability, and I wouldn't mind if he was executed, but then you'd be out your $700k."

More messages were exchanged, with Ulbricht finally writing on March 29, 2013: "I would like to put a bounty on his head if it's not too much trouble for you. What would be an adequate amount to motivate you to find him? Necessities like this do happen from time to time for a person in my position. I have others I can turn to, but it is always good to have options, and you are close to the case right now."

They haggled over the price, which was higher for a "clean" hit. On March 31, Ulbricht wrote: "I've only ever commissioned the one other hit, so I'm still learning this market. I have no problem putting my faith in you, and I am sure you will do a good job."

Redandwhite eventually sent back a picture with a random number that Ulbricht had given him as a way to prove that the murder had taken place.

“Marijuanaismymuse”

In the November 2 British Columbia court ruling, Justice Joyce DeWitt-Van Oosten cited a non-public affidavit written by a Canadian law enforcement officer, Corporal Todd Storozuk. This affidavit, the judge wrote, alleges that Ellingson was also part of a group that sold under the handle "Marijuanaismymuse."

But the plot twists: American authorities have gathered evidence, Justice DeWitt-Van Oosten continued, showing that Ellingson is both Marijuanaismymuse and redandwhite.

As she noted:

In 2013, someone with the username redandwhite communicated with and received Bitcoin payments from Mr. Ulbricht, in connection with purported attempts to begin selling narcotics on the Silk Road. A laptop recovered from Mr. Ulbricht contained a file labelled "save_red," which housed multiple photographs referenced in the communications. The photographs were sent by redandwhite and consisted of packaged drugs and Canadian currency. Some of the photographs showed a man in front of a building holding an envelope with a numerical code. Based on a comparative analysis with Mr. Ellingson's driver's license, authorities have identified him as the person in the photograph.

The judge also noted that Ellingson has a criminal record, including "three convictions for possessing drugs for the purpose of trafficking and one conviction for trafficking." He had also been sentenced to two years in jail.

"His record also includes seven other convictions: criminal harassment (x 3); possession of a prohibited or restricted weapon; driving while prohibited; assault; and breach of probation," she continued. "The breach of probation is the last registered conviction, occurring in 2007."

Justice DeWitt-Van Oosten also noted that Ellingson is probably not the only person behind the Marijuanaismymuse account. She also noted that another British Columbia man has been identified as being linked to the Marijuanaismymuse account.

In July 2018, BC authorities filed a $1.4 million civil forfeiture claim against the man, known as D.A.L., who authorities say is Marijuanaismymuse.

UPDATE Friday 8:19pm ET: Ars is withholding D.A.L.’s name to protect the privacy interests of his young children, in voluntary accordance with a Friday court order by Justice DeWitt-Van Oosten to refer to him solely by his initials in court filings.