A media furor surrounded the trial of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht in February. The 30-year-old was found guilty and faces a minimum of 20 years in jail. However, in a much lower-key decision, one of the largest drug dealers on the site, Steven Sadler, has been sentenced to just five years in prison.

Sadler, known as Nod on the unregulated online marketplace, is an ex-computer programmer who gave up a $180,000 salary in Seattle's IT sector and a sober life to pursue dealing drugs online. The 41-year-old was arrested in 2013 and charged with with trafficking 3,721 grams (8.2 pounds) of cocaine, 1,375 grams (3.3 pounds) of heroin, and 119 grams (about a quarter pound) of methamphetamine.

While on the run, Sadler boasted to The Daily Dot about how he was pocketing more than $100,000 a month, mostly from selling cocaine on the dark web site Silk Road. Sadler was sentenced to five years in prison on March 19 at a U.S. District Court in Seattle. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of seven years but the judge instead handed out just the mandatory five years. Sadler had pleaded guilty to all charges as did his 22-year-old girlfriend Jenna White who was arrested alongside the former programmer. White is due to be sentenced next month.

Ulbricht, who was convicted on Feb. 4, is awaiting sentencing on May 15. However, the high-profile trial is likely to run for a little longer. Before the conviction was even announced in February, Ulbricht's lawyers had already launched a motion for retrial. In March, his lawyers filed a memo seeking not just a retrial but also to re-open a motion that called for certain evidence to be suppressed.

Ulbricht has admitted that he started the site which sold drugs using the digital currency bitcoin on the dark web - the portion of the Internet that is not accessible via search engines - but claims that soon after launch the site was taken over by groups from the drug underworld who are now using him as a patsy. 

Photo: Imagens Evangélicas | Flickr