Trump Frees Infamous Drug Mastermind After Pledging Fentanyl Crackdown

President Donald Trump, left, pardoned Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, right, on Tuesday.
Getty Images, Reuters

President Donald Trump on Tuesday issued an unconditional pardon for the creator of a dark web drug marketplace, despite months of campaign tough talk toward fentanyl dealers and other traffickers.

The pardon, for Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, even came on the same day he promised to impose harsh penalties on China over the country’s failure to crack down on fentanyl manufacturing.

Trump announced the pardon in a Truth Social post Tuesday evening—fulfilling one of his many campaign promises—writing: “I just called the mother of Ross William Ulbricht to let her know that in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly, it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son, Ross.

“The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me. He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!,” he concluded.

People hold signs in support of jailed darknet market Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, as former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends the Libertarian Party's national convention in Washington, U.S., May 25, 2024. / Brian Snyder / REUTERS/Brian Snyder
People hold signs in support of jailed darknet market Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, as former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends the Libertarian Party's national convention in Washington, U.S., May 25, 2024. / Brian Snyder / REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Ulbricht was arrested by the FBI in 2013, accused of running an international drug marketplace on the dark web that generated a multimillion dollar revenue from the sales of illicit substances like heroin and cocaine.

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He was convicted of several charges in 2015, including drug trafficking and money laundering, and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The pardon came on the same day the president threatened China with a 10 percent tariff on imports of Chinese-made goods for what he blamed “on the fact that they’re sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada.” Trump warned the tariff could come into effect as soon as 1 February.

Trump has already suggested he would slap Mexico and Canada with 25 percent import taxes while blaming them for a rise in undocumented immigrants and drugs flowing into the U.S.

While the FBI and the U.S court system deemed Ulbricht a criminal, his supporters amongst crypto and Libertarian circles thought otherwise, minting him a hero instead. At the time, the ability to use Bitcoin to buy and sell items on Silk Road earned the robust respect of crypto-supportive crowds.

“It’s hard to argue that Ross Ulbricht wasn’t the most successful and influential entrepreneur of the early Bitcoin era,” Pete Rizzo, an editor at news publication Bitcoin Magazine, told The New York Times. “This is the industry banding together and saying, ‘We’re going to reclaim our own.’”

Ulbricht was also championed by his fellow Libertarians for pioneering a free market, becoming a sort of martyr to the party who held up “Free Ross” signs when Trump spoke at their national convention in May 2024. For years, the party has argued that Ulbricht simply hosted the site and didn’t actually engage in drug possession or transactions directly. They cast the venture as a libertarian experiment in free trade instead of criminal activity.

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“Ross Ulbricht has been a libertarian political prisoner for more than a decade. I’m proud to say that saving his life has been one of our top priorities and that has finally paid off,” Libertarian National Committee Chair Angela McArdle said in a statement after Trump’s pardon.

“Ross, congratulations to you and your family. God bless you and keep you safe in your new found freedom. On behalf of the Libertarian Party, we are gifting you with an honorary lifetime membership. Thank you to Pres. Trump for following through on your promise. This is an incredible moment in Libertarian history.”