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The Baltimore attorney then explained that the HSI agents in the room, Mike and Greg (who also
worked with Carl Force), had picked up a lead in a bust, a dealer who had been “turned” and had
given them a list of names belonging to people who sold drugs on the Silk Road. The attorney went on
to say that they were going to trace all the people on the list, and “one of those names is going to be
the leader of the Silk Road.” The Baltimore team sat there gloating with pride at their plan.
Jared couldn’t stop himself from interrupting them. “You guys have no idea what you’re up
against,” he said, upset. “You have no respect for Tor and Bitcoin and . . .”
Justin from Baltimore ignored Jared’s comment and insinuated that Baltimore HSI was going to
be taking over the case against the Silk Road. They might let Chicago join in if Jared had something to
contribute.
Furious, Jared was about to interrupt again when he was beaten to it by his own supervisor, who
seemed equally annoyed at the way these Baltimore agents had stormed into their town trying to throw
their weight around. “Here’s what we’re going to do,” Jared’s supervisor declared in a bellicose
tone. “You guys are going to go your way; we’re going to go our way.”
The room fell silent. Any ounce of cordiality that had been there when the meeting began had
vanished. Jared’s supervisor went on to dictate that if HSI Baltimore bumped into the investigation by
HSI Chicago, they would go up through the ranks and deal with it accordingly. “We’ll deconflict when
we have to.”
Silence hung there for a second and Justin spoke again. “That’s fine,” he said as the group from
Baltimore got up to leave. “But we’re pretty sure we’re going to have this site shut down in a couple
of weeks.”