WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Former US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) officer Carl Force entered a guilty plea for committing extortion and money laundering during an undercover investigation of a drug trafficking site called “Silk Road,” the Justice Department said in a press release.
“A former DEA agent [Carl Force] pleaded guilty today to extortion, money laundering and obstruction of justice, which he committed while working as an undercover agent investigating Silk Road, an online marketplace used to facilitate the purchase and sale of illegal drugs,” the release said on Wednesday.
Force was a DEA Special Agent for 15 years and the lead undercover officer in communication with Silk Road kingpin Ross Ulbricht, otherwise known as “Dread Pirate Roberts,” according to the release.
In 2013, Force sold inside information and fake drivers’ licenses to Ulbricht who paid Force using the online currency bitcoin, the release stated.
In his capacity as a DEA agent, but without authority or a legal basis to do so, he directed CoinMKT to freeze $337,000 in assets that he subsequently transferred to a personal account, according to the release.
Force also admitted to signing a $240,000 contract with 20th Century Fox for a film about the Silk Road investigation, unbeknownst to the DEA, the release claimed.
Force is one of two federal agents charged in the ongoing Silk Road investigation, the release added. Special Agent Shaun Bridges has been charged with laundering over $800,000 in digital currency.
