Maybe there's value in the fact that this was an Onion service that was targeted specifically -- are the Feds trying to send a message about Tor? Was this whole operation hinged on the PR or was there some strategic value to taking out the group (assuming your analogy to a local pharmacy holds true, which I don't necessarily believe)? Perhaps the Feds were scared because Tor was involved and wanted to strike before the defendants wised up and went totally dark with more anonymous payment schemes (anyone using PayPal obviously has no reasonable expectation of anonymity), knowing that PayPal et al only keep records so long?
