back to article Rogue Silk Road Fed starts 6.5-year stretch for nicking Bitcoins

A rogue US federal agent was jailed for 78 months on Monday after he stole Bitcoins during an investigation into the notorious Silk Road online black market. Carl Force, 46, of Baltimore, Maryland, a former US Drug Enforcement Administration agent, was supposed to act as a mole, selling bogus information on the investigation …

  1. Rono666

    Rule one don't muscle in on the mafia, running under the name of government.

  2. asdf
    FAIL

    >Carl Force, 46, of Baltimore, Maryland, a former US Drug Enforcement Administration agent

    >Force's mental health problems and alcoholism

    Wow the DEA dodged a bullet there. Luckily their man was addicted to the one drug that is legitimate and legal. What a scandal it would have been on the agency if he was a no good pot head instead.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Force's mental health problems and alcoholism

      You mean it's not just Aspergers sufferers that commit these crimes

      Who'd have thought

  3. Grikath
    Devil

    Just 6.5 years?

    In the US you can get that for yaywalking....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Just 6.5 years?

      And in South Africa you would have to be Ted Bundy (or else say something bad about the ANC) to actually have to serve a sentence that long behind bars.

    2. David 132 Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: Just 6.5 years?

      yaywalking

      (Assuming that wasn't a mere typo...)

      Walking whilst in a state of extreme happiness and contentment?

      Or perhaps you meant "Yay! Walking!" - the state of being enthusiastic and gleeful about walking?

      In at least some American cities, that's a paddlin'.

      True story, albeit told to me second hand... many years ago, one of my colleagues who was on a business trip to Houston from the UK decided to walk back from a restaurant to his hotel, which was only a mile or so. He got about 3 blocks before the cops pulled over and questioned him - refusing to believe that anyone who wasn't a vagrant would voluntarily walk anywhere. In the end they gave him a lift back to his hotel and told him not to do it again.

      So yeah, "Yay! Walking!" can be an offence in the States.

      1. Danny 14

        Re: Just 6.5 years?

        similar story from us, me and the missus went travelling about 15 years ago. We stopped over in LA (it was a gateway airport, we got an extra free stop on our plane tickets if we landed in LAX). Seriously misjudging LAX we didn't have car hire costed out, not a problem we though as 1) we were only stopping for a few of nights as we only wanted to visit Disneyland (yes yes I know) and venice beach, thinking we could catch a bus or something rather than hire a car (which we did, a tour bus ended up being cheaper than car hire in the end)

        The hotel was 5 miles from the airport so no issue with taxi, but when we walked from the hotel to a restaurant we got stopped by cops. They were highly suspicious until we showed them our passports and itinerary. We got a lift by them and a short tour of the area, they turned out to be quite pleasant but said a similar thing, only criminals and vagrants walk about at night - not that the area is dangerous.

        Most odd place. Previous stops of India, HK, Singapore weren't an issue walking about (or using mass transit). Aus was fine in the cities but practicality rears its head outside (we drove from cairns to Darwin to red centre to Sydney)

  4. Crazy Operations Guy

    A Fed thrown in prison for stealing from criminals

    Yeah, that guy going to make all kinds of friends in there...

    I assume he'd be put in Protective Custody the whole time, otherwise that 6.5 years may very well be a presumptuous of his life expectancy.

    1. Boo Radley

      Re: A Fed thrown in prison for stealing from criminals

      Not protected custody, the feds have entire facilities just for people like this. One housed perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche, former Syracuse mayor Lee Alexander, convicted FBI agent Richard Miller, televangelist Jim Bakker, and an wide variety of former cops, judges and other former high ranking people - all of the above being there during the same period of time. Plus the occasional Mafia Don and other shitbags.

    2. g e
      Coat

      "Nob" Force

      He'll be experiencing some of that, doubtless.

  5. x 7

    " that guy going to make all kinds of friends in there..."

    the need for a pot of vaseline will be the least of his worries...

  6. Stevie

    Bah!

    "Carl Force"???

    Seriously?

    That sounds like a name that should be scrolling down the screen at the end of a 1980s Chuck Norris movie.

    1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

      Re: Bah!

      His name is even better rendered in the court documents:

      CARL MARK FORCE IV

    2. Old Handle

      Re: Bah!

      As a comment on a previous article (I think it was here) astutely pointed out, with a name like that, he really had no choice be to become a bent cop.

  7. Winkypop Silver badge
    WTF?

    Use the Force

    All that risk for just $50,000?

    He must have been impaired.

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