Summary of Nick Bilton's American Kingpin

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Nick Bilton's American Kingpin in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: It wasn’t long before the media got wind of the new Web site where anyone—not just teenagers and weed dealers but terrorists and black hat hackers—could buy and sell contraband detection-free. Spurred by a public outcry, the federal government launched an epic two-year manhunt for the site’s elusive proprietor, with no leads, no witnesses, and no clear jurisdiction. All the investigators knew was that whoever was running the site called himself the Dread Pirate Roberts.

The Silk Road quickly ballooned into $1.2 billion enterprise, and Ross embraced his new role as kingpin. He enlisted a loyal crew of allies in high and low places, all as addicted to the danger and thrill of running an illegal marketplace as their customers were to the heroin they sold. Through his network he got wind of the target on his back and took drastic steps to protect himself—including ordering a hit on a former employee. As Ross made plans to disappear forever, the Feds raced against the clock to catch a man they weren’t sure even existed, searching for a needle in the haystack of the global Internet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Dec 13, 2021
• ISBN: 9781669344780

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

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Insights on Nick Bilton's American Kingpin

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The plane carrying the envelope landed at O’Hare Airport in Chicago around 4 p. m. Shadow and Rogue, the airport’s two sniffing dogs, came through only a couple of times a month, so the postal service had to rely on humans to search the scrubs for suspicious packages.

#2

The pill that Mike seized was destined for Chicago, and it was a week before Jared consented to go and investigate.

#3

One day, Jared was called to the scene of a drug bust. The package containing the drugs was addressed to the recipient’s roommate, who was a suspect. The young man readily admitted that he got drugs via the mail from a website called the Silk Road.

#4

Jared spent the next few days researching the Silk Road, which he heard was an online marketplace where you could buy any drug imaginable. He couldn’t believe how easy it was to find.

#5

Jared came up with a plan to show his superiors how much he cared about the case, even if it meant spending time on the Silk Road. He would need to convince them all that this was bigger than a single pink pill.

#6

The brothers were given a reality show audition tape to make, in which they had to act as if they were willing to jump off a cliff. While the script called for him to be the brains of the operation, he was clearly the more athletic of the two.

#7

The author met a man named Ross, who was a contestant on the Amazing Race. He was extremely kind, but also extremely odd. He had no interest in money, and would much rather help others.

#8

The author helped his brother with a race he was participating in. On the drive home, the author told his brother about an opportunity to make half a million dollars on a reality TV show. This would be the first of many failures for the author.

#9

After the death of her mother, a young woman named Julia attended Penn State University. There, she met Ross, a fellow student who was also working on research to verify rare properties in crystalline materials. They went on to have an affair that lasted for a whole semester.

#10

The author met a man named Ross who lived