The black market website, AlphaBay, may have been effectively shut down earlier this year, but authorities have still been on the hunt for the people responsible for the proliferation of the site in the first place. It has been recently reported that one of the people behind the drug trafficking and other illegal activities has been apprehended by law enforcers in Illinois.
In a report by the International Business Times, the police arrested 24-year-old Ronald L. Wheeler III, who hails from Stremwood, Illinois. Wheeler is now charged with conspiracy to commit access device fraud, and is being tried by the Atlanta federal court. Wheeler has been known to use online aliases such as "Trappy" and "Trappy-Pandora," and is he is currently under the suspicion of being the public relations specialist of the black market website AlphaBay.
Currently, it is suspected that Wheeler was a working cog for the black market drug site since May of 2015, up until it was shut down in July earlier this year. According to the Chicago Sun Times, it is suspected that among Wheeler's responsibilities were to discuss the products of the site, as well as the inventory on Reddit, while "mediating sales disputes" for potential clients.
On Wednesday, Nov. 15, Wheeler managed to bring himself to court and was put in front of Judge Janet King. When Wheeler was presented with the charges against him filed by the local federal authorities, he pleaded "not guilty," after which the esteemed Judge allowed him to go free while his case was still being assessed, but he was also required to submit to a mandatory drug test.
According to Ars Technica, Wheeler was only caught after three months since AlphaBay was shut down, which is proof that law enforcement agencies are still looking for the criminals at large that used to be involved with the drug trafficking site. Alexandre Cazes, the man who started Alphabay, had allegedly committed suicide in his cell in Thailand after he had spent some time there.
