22 Dec 2013

Australian arrested in Silk Road probe

11:03 am on 22 December 2013

A Brisbane man alleged by authorities to have helped run the online drug bazaar Silk Road has been arrested as part of an international police operation.

Officials say he is wanted in the United States for conspiracy to traffic narcotics, hack computers and launder money.

Peter Phillip Nash, 40, was arrested in Brisbane on Friday and two others named in a US Justice Department indictment were arrested in America and Ireland.

Court documents show that during its more than two-and-a-half years in operation, the Silk Road site was used by thousands of drug dealers to traffic heroin, cocaine and amphetamines.

If found guilty, Mr Nash would face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The arrested man appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday for an extradition hearing and was remanded in custody until February next year.