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Two former federal agents have been charged with stealing bitcoins while investigating the case of the Silk Road black market website, according to an affidavit filed to the San Francisco District Court by a special agent Tigran Gambaryan.

Carl M. Force, 46, from the Drug Enforcement Administration and Shaun W. Bridges, 32, from the Secret Service are being charged with wire fraud, theft of government property, and money laundering. The agents are accused of appropriating bitcoins from the Silk Road website instead of turning them over to the government. Both men were involved in Baltimore's Silk Road task force. 

"In their capacity as members of the Baltimore Silk Road Task Force, both Force and Bridges had significant exposure to and developed expertise in the digital currency known as Bitcoin," the affidavit reads.

According to the affidavit, Force served as the lead undercover agent and was tasked with establishing communications with the key figure behind the Silk Road marketplace Ross William Ulbricht known as Dread Pirate Roberts (DPR). 

"Force created certain fictitious personas - that were not officially sanctioned - to communicate with DPR, the target of Force's investigation. Using one of these personas, Force sought to extort DPR by seeking monetary payment offering in exchange not to provide the government with certain information if DPR paid $250,000," one of the charges reads.

Secret Service Agent Shaun Bridges who allegedly stole over $800,000 of the Silk Road funds was arrested in Baltimore on Friday. Bridges gave himself up on Monday. Both former agents are scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrates on Monday.

According to previous reports, 144,336 BTC were confiscated from the Silk Road operator Ross Ulbricht's laptop by the FBI in 2013. Ross Ulbricht was found guilty of selling drugs and money laundering under the pseudonym of Dread Pirate Roberts, the leader of the Silk Road website, on February 4th, 2015.

The investigation of the Silk Road case has continued after Ulbricht's conviction. An Australian citizen Peter Phillip Nash confessed to money laundering and drug trafficking in the federal court in Manhattan last month. He presumably earned $30,000 for 10 months of work as a primary moderator.

Another alleged Silk Road staff member Andrew Jones pleaded guilty on October 2nd, 2014 and will be sentenced later this year. Gary Davis, who was also allegedly involved with the website, is now awaiting extradition from Ireland.

CoinFox reported that the Australian police have tracked down and arrested in Melbourne Richard Pollard, an Australian drug dealer who operated on the Silk Road black market. The drug dealer pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The Asset Confiscation Operations confiscated 24,500 bitcoins from him and are now waiting for the right moment to sell the digital currency.