I think owners who are not security pros may be more common because when somebody knows enough and have been doing it for some time, he may realize that with all his skill he still can be owned one way or another (and he will be given long enough time and high enough incentives).

Or maybe because there are just far more amateurs than actual security pros out there?

Dream market remained online for 7 years and shut down gracefully after the administrator got tired of dealing with DDoS attacks, odds are the site earned closer to $100M even if you ignore bitcoin appreciation.

>and he will be given long enough time and high enough incentives

You only have to last a couple of years to make tens of millions, Empire Market exited the business with over $30 million after two years.

OK, your first point definitely beats mine. I guess then my point could be used against talent getting hired to help with the project? I mean they make some decent money so they could hire great people and pay them anonymously but somebody would need to accept the jail risk.

I think in reality the risk of going to jail is far lower than you might assume.

If you were worried, you could evade capture forever by just moving around with a bunch of prepaid SIM cards and a 4G modem that lets you change your IMEI. Even if the police could somehow track down your Tor connections, they'd never be able to find you in a big city.

The risk of getting caught can be eliminated almost entirely without taking any unrealistic steps, an actual security pro would be able to get away with this with ease. Perhaps this is why we haven't seen any infosec people go to jail for operating darknet markets?