Today, a jury found Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht guilty of seven charges related to his alleged role in running the deep-web bazaar for drugs and other contraband. Ulbricht admitted in court to creating the site, but insisted that he sold it to another operator and left the business before the FBI arrested him in 2013.

Ulbricht's trial has been a spectacle befitting an internet drug lord: in recent weeks, attorneys have presented transcripts with apparent Hell's Angels about murderers-for hire, given wild theories about a fallen Bitcoin entrepreneur, and argued about the lexical power of emoji. Ulbricht's defense hinged on the claim that he had been framed as Dread Pirate Roberts—the online pseudonym adopted by The Silk Road's leader—because he made a "perfect fall guy" as the avowed founder of the site. (The defense attorney claimed that Ulbricht created The Silk Road as an innocuous "economic experiment" before the real kingpins took over.)

In the end, Ulbricht was found guilty on all charges leveled against him, including money laundering and drug trafficking. He will be sentenced on May 15. According to reporter Patrick O'Neill, Ulbricht faces 20 years to life in prison.

[Image via AP]