B.C. judge rejects U.S. extradition request of alleged Silk Road trafficker

CBC

a day ago

A British Columbia Supreme Court judge declined a U.S. request to extradite a B.C. man accused of selling drugs on the Silk Road online platform, citing insufficient evidence.
James Ellingson is accused in the U.S. of trafficking illicit drugs in exchange for bitcoin on Silk Road between 2011 and 2013, the year that U.S. law enforcement authorities shut down the anonymous online marketplace.
Ellingson was alleged to have operated under three usernames – MarijuanaIsMyMuse, Redandwhite and Lucydrop – to sell to customers in New York City and elsewhere.
In a decision released Wednesday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Lisa Warren found the evidence presented was insufficient.
Warren wrote that bitcoin was transferred from the MarijuanaIsMyMuse Silk Road account to anonymous intermediary addresses, and the cryptocurrency was transferred from those addresses to exchange accounts controlled by Ellingson, "but there is no evidence that Mr. Ellingson controlled the intermediary addresses."
CBC News reached out to Ellingson's lawyer, Marilyn Sandford, who said her client wouldn't comment on the decision.
Paul McMurray, a Burnaby-based lawyer who is not connected to the case, said it's relatively rare for a Canadian judge to deny an extradition request.
"The United States makes quite a few extradition requests to Canada and, especially in recent years, they seem to have their tackle in order in filing the appropriate documentation containing enough evidence to justify extradition," he said. "So this one was a bit of a rarity."