Europol collaborated with law enforcement authorities in six countries to take down an international drug trafficking network that uses cryptocurrencies for its financial needs.
Europol said in a recent announcement that it had arrested “clandestine bankers who were moving and laundering the proceeds of large-scale drug trafficking and other serious crimes.”
When contacted by DecipherEuropol explained that “it is not authorized to reveal further details.”
The action is the culmination of two investigations and led to the arrest of nine suspects. It led to the seizure of valuables, including gold and luxury items, 35,000 euros in cash and 25 million euros in cryptocurrency, equivalent to $26.23 million. The total value of the seized assets is 27 million euros, equivalent to 28.33 million dollars.
Byron Boston, former United States Dallas police officer and CEO of cryptocurrency tracking company Crypto Track, said Decipher that cryptocrimes pose a very diverse set of challenges for law enforcement.
“Blockchain technology operates on principles that are very different from conventional financial systems, requiring a deep understanding of decentralized networks, cryptographic algorithms and public ledgers,” he said.
In this case, European authorities seized cash during a house search in connection with an investigation into cocaine trafficking in 2021. Investigators discovered handwritten inscriptions on five-euro bills, which provided information on who coordinated and facilitated the financial aspects of operations.
The Spanish authorities provided the information to Europol, which compared it with data collected in other cases. This led to the identification of a British suspect as the coordinator of the shadow banking service. The suspect allegedly had links to a criminal network based in southern Spain under the supervision of Dubai-based operators.
Further investigation into individuals associated with the suspect led to coordinated police action on November 4, 2024 in Malaga, Spain, involving Belgian, Bulgarian, Dutch and American law enforcement authorities. According to the announcement, authorities discovered multiple “financial networks offering ‘crime as a service’” that were “predominantly controlled from the United Arab Emirates.”
Boston highlighted that such coordinated efforts are hampered by “the lack of standardized training for cryptocurrency crime investigators” and the “anonymity or pseudonymity associated with” cryptocurrency transactions. Transitioning into the cryptocurrency tracking industry required him to “not only gain new technical expertise, but also foster partnerships with technology companies and regulatory agencies to close the knowledge gap.”
The announcement follows recent reports that the UK’s National Crime Agency disrupted Russian cryptocurrency-related money laundering operations. A series of court cases reviewed in late November also revealed that money laundering organizations involved in imports of US cocaine from Mexico and Colombia use Tie (USDT) on a particularly large scale.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.
