You can kind of see how you could get sucked into this, though. Suppose for example you start out simply participating on the forums. At some point someone reaches out to you and says something like, "Hey, you seem like a fair and diplomatic person and we like having you around, how about we pay you to moderate?"

In that context it might have felt pretty harmless. It's somewhat analogous to being rude to people on the Internet. We all know it's awfully easy to antagonize people who you're not face-to-face with. Similarly, being a forum moderator for the Silk Road must have felt a lot different than standing around in a warehouse while a bunch of Columbians package coke.

From a legal perspective, I guess it wasn't that different after all.

It's not unbelievable if the maintenance was low enough to hold another full time job. 75k untaxed spending money is no pocket change. Also, they may have all been pushing products/services, as well.

Bottom rung drug dealers make less than that, and are probably in a higher risk position.