The FBI confirmed on Friday it has made a new arrest related to the recently relaunched online drug marketplace Silk Road, known as Silk Road 2.0. The development comes after a night of intense speculation among the site's community that two of its moderators were apprehended and that law enforcement possibly has deep access to the site.
A spokesperson for the FBI office in Richmond, Va., told Mashable that agents had executed a search warrant Andrew Michael Jones, who is thought to be a Silk Road moderator with the alias "Inigo." Separately, a spokesperson for the New York FBI office told Mashable that the agency made an arrest related to Silk Road, but would not to provide a name.
See also: As Major Silk Road Competitor Shutters, $100M Vanishes With It
Both FBI representatives declined to provide any further information in what is an ongoing investigation.
Concurrently, TechCrunch confirmed with law enforcement in Ireland that another Silk Road top moderators who goes by "Libertas" was also arrested.
These arrests relate to moderators of the new Silk Road, known by some as Silk Road 2.0 o SR 2, which launched five weeks after the FBI seized and shuttered original site on Oct. 1.
Speculation about the arrests erupted early Friday morning, after a poster on Reddit claimed her boyfriend, a moderator for Silk Road, was arrested. You can read the full post here.

The original post on Reddit included images of what appears to be a search warrant. The images have since been deleted, but not before DeepDotWeb downloaded them.
The apparent search warrant was signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge M. Hannah Lauck of the Eastern District of Virginia federal court. The warrant calls for the seizure of "evidence relevant to corroborating the identification of Jones as the Silk Road administrator 'Inigo.'"
The Redditor also uploaded a scanned business card from FBI agent Christopher Tarbell, who is responsible for the arrest Ross William Ulbricht, the alleged owner and operator of the original Silk Road.
Concern over the arrests bubbled up even further following a post on another black market website called Tormarket. An individual claiming to have access to a private Silk Road vendor forum posted the following:
Guys I was arrested yesterday and out on bond now. But something is fucked! I know I'm risking more warning you guys and my attorney doesn't even want me on the internet but you guys need to know this. When I was in the interview room they showed me all sorts of shit that they should not know or have access to including conversations I've had with buyers and even DPR. I don't fucking understand.. and when I was in there I was at a loss for words. Something is definitely wrong and they have the ability to see things on here only mods or admins should like btc transfers and a dispute I had. WHAT THE FUCK?
If the above post is indeed legitimate, more arrests could be imminent. At publishing time, the Silk Road market was still operational.
Silk Road's owner, who is known by the alias Dread Pirate Roberts or DPR, posted the following comment on his site's forums Friday morning in an attempt to quell growing concern by the site's users: "Silk Road has not been compromised even if the allegations are true. Neither had access to sensitive material. I will make an announcement later to address the concerns this has raised."
This is the only announcement from Dread Pirate Roberts so far; he has not replied to Mashable's multiple inquiries sent via Twitter and Silk Road's forums. We will continue to update this story as we receive more information.
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Image: Mashable composite: iStockphoto, pijama61; Silk Road