Silk Road online drug dealer pleads guilty to trafficking

CHICAGO - The world's most prolific online drug dealer has pleaded guilty in Chicago, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.

Cornelis Jan "SuperTrips" Slomp, 23, was arrested in Miami last August. The 23-year-old Dutchman admitted in court Thursday to selling illegal drugs on now-defunct underground website Silk Road, and is expected to be sentenced to 15 years in prison. According to the Sun-Times, Slomp claimed to have sold more drugs than anyone else on the site.

The paper reports Slomp - a former software engineer - made over $3 million in the digital currency bitcoins by selling various drugs online. He shipped 104 kilos of MDMA, 566,000 ecstasy pills and four kilos of cocaine through the mail using the nickname "SuperTrips." While some drugs wound up in Chicago, the dealer also sold outside the U.S., boasting "big stockpiles of product, you literally cannot empty me out."

Slomp could face up to as many as 40 years in prison for his crimes, but the Sun-Times said that prosecutors agreed to ask for a 15-year sentence in exchange for the dealer's cooperation. He has already forfeited roughly $3 million in drug money.

According to the paper, Silk Road collapsed last October after alleged founder Ross William Ulbricht - nicknamed "Dread Pirate Roberts" - was arrested on charges of drug trafficking, soliciting murder, facilitating computer hacking and money laundering. Slomp's attorney said his client could testify against Ulbricht.