Ross Ulbricht created, managed and fiercely protected the secret Silk Road website right up to the day he was caught in 2013, taking millions in commissions from illegal drug sales using the Bitcoin currency, a prosecutor told a federal jury yesterday.

Southern District Assistant U.S. Attorney Serrin Turner said there was “a mountain of evidence” that Ulbricht started the Silk Road website, “sold drugs from the start” and built the site using the alias “Dread Pirate Roberts” to keep its existence­—and the identities of the drug buyers and sellers—hidden from view.

“This was his baby, and he stayed with it enthusiastically for three years,” Turner said in his closing argument in Judge Katherine Forrest's courtroom.