Accused Silk Road drug trafficker won’t be extradited to the U.S., B.C. judge rules

This frame grab from the Silk Road website shows thumbnails for products allegedly available through the site. (silkroaddrugs.org)

A B.C. man accused of trafficking drugs through the now-defunct Silk Road will not be extradited to the U.S. after a B.C. judge found the evidence was insufficient to link him to the online account used to facilitate the illicit transactions.

James Ellingson was indicted in the United States in 2018, accused of a litany of offences alleged to have occurred on the online marketplace between 2011 and 2013.

The extradition hearing took place in B.C. Supreme Court earlier this year and the decision was posted online Wednesday.

Justice Lisa Warren’s decision explained that her task was to determine if the circumstantial evidence provided by the U.S. was such that Ellingson – if charged in Canada – would be ordered to stand trial on the offences of trafficking in a controlled substance and illegally selling cannabis.

“The question is whether there is any admissible evidence that could, if believed, result in a conviction or, put another way, whether the evidence discloses a case on which a reasonable, properly instructed jury could convict,” the judge wrote.

“Where, as here, the evidence is circumstantial, the judge must conduct a limited weighing of the circumstantial evidence to assess whether, in light of all the evidence, it is reasonably capable of supporting the inferences that the requesting state asks to be drawn.”

Although Ellingson was accused of using three accounts to facilitate criminal activity, the judge found she was only required to consider the evidence pertaining to one – with the username “MarijuanaIsMyMuse” which is abbreviated as “MMIM” in the decision.

Warren’s decision said she had “no difficulty” finding that there was a “prima facie case” that the operator or operators of the MMIM account “engaged in conduct” that amounted to drug trafficking and illegal marijuana sales.

The account was used “almost exclusively” to sell drugs, the decision noted, saying the data provided to the court showed the sale of “significant quantities of various substances including methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, LSD, MDMA, and marijuana, in exchange for Bitcoin.”

The U.S. relied on three things it argued could “considered collectively, and in light of all the evidence, give rise to a reasonable inference” that Ellingson was the operator or one of the operators of the MMIM account, Warren explained.

First, “drug notations” in Elligson’s email “consistent with the narcotics sold” through the Silk Road Account. Second, a username and password for the MMIM account emailed to Ellingson in 2013. Third, a series of Bitcoin transactions, some of which occurred “during the period in which the Silk Road server data indicates drugs were sold through the MMIM Silk Road account.”

Warren rejected the argument that there was enough to link Ellinson to the account.

“I have concluded that the evidence linking Mr. Ellingson to the MMIM Silk Road account is so bereft of detail that I cannot find that it is sufficient,” she wrote, before re-summarizing the evidence, or lack thereof, in full.

“It is not possible to conclude that this evidence, considered collectively, and in light of all the evidence in the (documents), is reasonably capable of supporting the inference that Mr. Ellingson was the person or one of the people who participated in the allegedly criminal transactions conducted through the MMIM Silk Road account,” the decision concluded.