- A federal judge has issued a warrant for the seizure of approximately 392 Bitcoin, valued at approximately $ 16 million, which, according to U.S. attorneys, was owned by a group of Darknet drug dealers.
- U.S. attorneys said the owners bought a 1974 Triumph fishing boat and an octopus permit in California to “disguise and disguise” drug money.
- The value of the Bitcoin is more than ten times more than it was in January 2019 when it was found during a search of a home in Ventura, California, according to the complaint.
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A federal judge has issued a warrant for the seizure of approximately 392 Bitcoin, valued at approximately $ 16 million, which, according to U.S. attorneys, was owned by a group of Darknet drug dealers.
The U.S. Marshals have been holding the Bitcoin, along with an old fishing boat and an squid permit, since 2019, according to a forfeiture complaint filed in district court on Dec. 29. Lawyers say a group of Darknet drug dealers laundered their money in Bitcoin, and laundered $ 600,000 by buying a California squid permit and a 1974 Triumph fishing boat.
The 391,5873617 Bitcoin was worth about $ 16 million on Sunday morning, more than ten times as much as it was when it was discovered during a raid in Ventura, California, in 2019. The owners, who were arrested according to lawyers, have not been identified. .
In the forfeiture complaint, the bitcoin, permit and boat are listed as “Defendants”.
“The accused are in the custody of the U.S. Marshals service in this district, where they will remain under the jurisdiction of this court during the course of this action,” the submission reads.
Attorneys from the Department of Justice who filed the complaint did not respond to a request for additional information about the forfeiture statement, raid or accused.
As Treasury officials introduce new regulations to attack money laundering via Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the case is a reminder that some treat the currencies much the same as cash. Bitcoin can be stored in a home, and $ 16 million in Bitcoin fits in a wallet.
Read more: ‘This is madness’: Andreessen Horowitz and Fred Wilson explode the Trump administration and say they are trying to put new and ‘flawed’ crypto rules in place by 11am.
Without further information, it is difficult to say exactly how the Bitcoin was stored, but it seems clear that it was in a wallet that was meant to keep it offline. Lawyers described it as a ‘cold storage’ wallet. Earlier this month, Square CEO Jack Dorsey, a talkative owner and promoter of Bitcoin, posted a guide to setting up a similar offline wallet.
—Jack (@jack) 3 January 2021
Back when the federal agents seized Darknet Bitcoin, in Bitcoin, Bitcoin’s price dropped to about $ 3,400. By the time the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued its warrant Monday, Bitcoin was higher than $ 30,000, although it had fallen briefly below the point. By Friday, Bitcoin had climbed more than $ 41,000 for the first time.
The seized Bitcoin was earned through illegal drug sales in several Darknet markets, according to the forfeiture statement.
According to U.S. attorneys: “The accused Bitcoin came between 2016 and 2019 from the sale of illegal drugs, including fentanyl patches and opioids dispensed without a prescription, on the Darknet.
They added: ‘In about 2014, the seller started selling illegal prescription drugs on the Darknet using various markets, including Dream, Silk Road, AlphaBay and Wall Street Market, and from 2014 onwards, earned about $ 250,000 a month from Bitcoin each month. the illegal drug sales. ‘
Investigators made controlled purchases at the dealers between December 2017 and May 2018 before striking the Ventura home on January 11, 2019.
According to U.S. attorneys, after the raid, authorities said they had converted $ 600,000 in Bitcoin into cash.
To “hide and disguise” it, the merchants used the money to buy a 1974 Triumph fishing boat and a California squid permit issued by the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, both of which are now in federal hands.
The case, the United States against 391.5873617 in Bitcoin, et al., Was assigned last week to District Judge Christina A. Snyder and Magistrate Judge Jacquieline Chooljian, according to a Monday submission. Snyder was nominated to the Federal Reserve in 1997 by then-President Bill Clinton.