It seems that drug vendors are running out of luck. The European Union authorities conducted a drug raid against dark web sellers seizing $5.2 million worth of cryptocurrencies, Fortune reports.
The authorities seized 800,000 LSD blotters, €3.3 million ($3.85 million) in fiat and real estate property, and 10 luxury vehicles in addition to the cryptocurrencies.
The dealers purportedly sold drugs in over 100 countries. Authorities suspect that they had been running an ‘organized crime group’ since at least 2012.
The details of which cryptocurrencies were seized and in what amounts are not yet known.
The raids, which took place in Spain and Austria, were conducted in collaboration between European law enforcement agency Europol and the Spanish Civil Guard. They arrested a total of eight individuals.
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It is worth noting that the US authorities also recently concluded an undercover operation against dark web drug sellers. The authorities seized more than 2,000 BTC as part of the raid, and believe at least another 2,000 BTC is still with the arrested sellers.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) currently has nearly 130 cryptocurrency-related cases with it, as reported by Bloomberg.
FBI supervisory special agent Kyle Armstrong noted to Bloomberg that this is a small number compared to its overall thousands of pending cases. But most of the the cryptocurrency-related cases are associated with selling drugs on the dark web.
Cryptocurrencies are popular on the dark web due to the associated anonymity. But multiple reports over the years have shown that Bitcoin or most other cryptocurrencies aren’t perfect at securing anonymity.
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