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are safe from the laws of your native country or come to grips [with the reality that] there is always
the possibility of getting caught.”
He counseled DPR on looking into alternative passports and possibly finding a backup place to
live. Carl also taught him how international drug-smuggling routes worked through “dead drops,”
where dealers leave drugs or guns in a location like a storage locker at a train terminal and then give
the buyer the locker combination so they can grab their stuff and leave the money behind without the
two ever meeting in person. The perfect way for the Silk Road to avoid the mail system. Finally Carl
gave DPR advice about getting a lawyer.
Carl wasn’t always blurring the line of DEA agent and pretend drug dealer. There were times he
did things by the book, including helping his co–case agent Mike McFarland from HSI Baltimore
order drugs off the site from low-level dealers and then arresting those sellers. Over the summer they
detained a few people and took over their accounts with the goal of trying to corner others. In one
instance they arrested a man in Baltimore who sold meth on the Silk Road. In another they busted a
man in Lincoln, Nebraska, who sold phenazepam, bromo blotters (which were similar to LSD),
prescription meds including Xanax and Valium, and, for an added bonus, guns.
But even during the moments when Carl was doing his job as a cop, he would sometimes become
a rapscallion. In one instance he teamed up with another agent, Shaun Bridges, who worked for the
Secret Service and who had joined the Marco Polo task force to help follow the money. The two
agents tried to recruit the National Security Agency to help in their hunt. Bridges had an intimidating
look to him, with thin, squinty eyes, a black goatee, and short buzzed hair that made his ears pop
outward. There was something about him that seemed to say, Be careful with this one, but Carl didn’t
see it.
The NSA, or “No Such Agency,” as it was unofficially called, was rumored to be able to crack
into any secure computer on the planet. Carl reasoned that the NSA could help him break Tor and find
the Dread Pirate Roberts. While everyone else on the Marco Polo task force knew the agency didn’t
touch drug-related cases, Carl and Shaun were determined to get it involved. So one day, without the
knowledge of any of the other agents, the two men set up a secret meeting with one of Shaun’s
contacts at the NSA. They didn’t want a paper trail, so everything was done in person.
The NSA analyst they met with, while sympathetic to their plight and the numbing hunt for the
Dread Pirate Roberts, informed them that the NSA’s mandate was only to go after targets that could
harm the security of America. “Sorry, we can’t help you,” the analyst said. Oh, and by the way, this
conversation never happened.
But the two agents weren’t going to give up so quickly, so Shaun presented an alternative idea to
Carl: “Let’s start trying to buy explosives on the site!” This way, he said, they could show that the
Silk Road and other Dark Web sites could be used to harm America.
“I’m in!” Carl responded gleefully. When Carl told his boss, Nick, he was warned not to go
there, noting that “bombs” were not part of the DEA’s mandate, in the same way that drugs were not
part of the NSA’s.
But Carl was in charge, at least in his mind, and no one was going to tell him what to do. So he
and Shaun explored buying pipe bombs online and having them shipped to an undercover government
PO box, where they would be able to show the NSA analyst that the Silk Road could be used for an
attack on U.S. soil. Soon they realized a random discovery of a couple of pipe bombs in the mail
might cause a bit of a stir in the postal service, and the plan was halted at the last minute.