Dismantle band in Europe that accepted cryptocurrencies as payment in a Darknet

The Spanish Civil Guard and the Austrian Federal Police, with the support of Europol, dismantled a criminal network that, through a Darknet, carried out transactions with cryptocurrencies, as part of a business dedicated to the production, production and distribution of new psychoactive substances (NPS for its acronym in English) and money laundering.

The information was released on June 28 through press releases published on the websites of law enforcement agencies, which explains that in the process of detention of the band, which operated in several European cities, 509 BTC were seized, (about € 2,500,000), in addition to € 137,000 in IOTA and € 30,000 in LUMEN , according to the calculations presented in the press release, which does not indicate the exact amounts in terms of cryptocurrencies and should be considered as an approximation due to market variations. The investigation began in 2015, so these figures can be an average of the last months of the price of these cryptocurrencies.

To the confiscations dozens of computer supports, computers and encryption systems are added, for which the authorities believe that the cryptocurrencies can not be used or transferred for the time being. In addition to 100 different types of NPS and 788,606 doses of LSD, along with properties and assets valued at more than 8 million euros, including three real estate, bank accounts and high-end vehicles.

Regarding the modus operandi, the informative note of the Spanish Civil Guard adds that the investigations carried out and started since 2015 determined that the NPS offer was made through two highly recognized web pages, located in the Darknet and managed by the criminal network, which were accessed by people invited and redirected from forums dedicated to the subject.

Among other forms of payment such as Paypal, Payward or Payvision, the band accepted transfers of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in exchange for psychoactives, BTC being the preferred means of payment as a way to guarantee the anonymity of both parties, perhaps based on the popular belief that the Bitcoin network offers that property. Once the payments were received, the cryptographic currencies were redistributed in different wallets digital, in order to hinder the monitoring of transactions, as limited.

It is also stated that all the economic benefits obtained were converted into cash thanks to the intermediation of several companies with a facade of legality, together with other illicit organizations and the use of "hawala" (informal system of transfer of funds). In this way, transactions of up to € 700,000 were made.

Securing 2,000 bitcoins in the United States

In a similar action to that of Europe, on June 26 the United States Department of Justice informed also about an operation where they detained 35 people and almost 2,000 bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies were seized , for an approximate value of more than $ 20 million, together with devices for cryptocurrency mining and computer equipment.

It is an undercover operation, which began a year ago, where the Secret Service, National Security Investigations (HSI), the Postal Inspection Service and the Department of Justice also participated. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The agency expresses in its press release that the objective of the activity, which allowed the opening of more than 90 active cases throughout the country, was to counteract the criminal activities carried out in the Darknets, many of them related to the sale of illicit substances and that usually involve the exchange of cryptocurrencies. Although recent studies indicate that in market terms, this type of activity represents only 1% of total exchanges of cryptocurrencies.

Others studies , among them one made by the European Union, have shown that currently cryptocurrencies are not widely used by organizations linked to terrorism.

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