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 A Manhattan federal jury convicted Cheng Le, 22, of three counts,
including attempting to possess a biological toxin for use as a
weapon. Prosecutors said Le tried to buy ricin from an undercover
FBI employee posing as a vendor on a website called Evolution.
Le faces up to life in prison. His lawyer, Patrick Brackley, said Le
planned to appeal. He had argued no proof existed Le was the website
user who sought the ricin.
Law enforcement has been cracking down on illegal activity involving
online black markets operating on a hidden network of websites that
can only be accessed using specialized browsers.
The four-day trial spotlighted how law enforcement has become
increasingly concerned about how these marketplaces could facilitate
sales of not just drugs, a focus in past cases, but of items posing
threats to national security.
The marketplaces included Evolution, which became the largest after
the Federal Bureau of Investigation's 2013 seizure of Silk Road,
where drugs and other items could be bought with the digital
currency bitcoin.
Evolution, unlike Silk Road, carried not just drugs but also toxins
and weapons. It abruptly closed in March, but similar websites
remain.
Prosecutors said that in December 2014, Le, going by "WhenInDoubt,"
contacted an Evolution vendor called "Dark_Mart" about buying ricin.
In messages to the vendor, who was actually an FBI employee, Le
discussed plans to sell the ricin as "simple and easy death pills"
to customers for their own use.
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Prosecutors said Le discussed wanting the ricin pills included in a
bottle with ordinary vitamins, saying "as the target takes the
medicine every day, sooner or later he'd ingest that poisonous pill
and die."
Le wrote, "After all, it is death itself we're selling here, and the
more risk-free, the more efficient we can make it, the better,"
according to prosecutors,
The FBI that month shipped fake ricin to Le, who, wearing latex
gloves, retrieved the shipment and took its contents to his
apartment, prosecutors said.
Le was arrested at his apartment, where authorities found the fake
ricin, castor oil bean seeds (the source of ricin) and Le's
computer, which was logged onto the website.
The case is U.S. v. Le, U.S. District Court, Southern District of
New York, No. 15-cr-00038.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman
and Steve Orlofsky)
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