Brazilian federal police recently caught the members of drug smuggling operation. They were using Bitcoin in order to launder money globally. In total, 12 people were arrested. It is suspected that they had laundered more than $ 1 million to fund the drug trade in Asia, Africa as well as Europe. This is another prime example that culprits are nowadays using the Bitcoin in order to carry out illegal activities.
Most of the legit cryptocurrency owners are already worried that if such activities increase, there will be even more restrictions on cryptocurrencies. As a result, it will become difficult for users to invest in new cryptocurrencies. Many of the criminals are using the cryptocurrencies in order to hide away their money. They are using cryptocurrencies in order to launder the money out of various countries as well. This is another reason why it is becoming difficult for the authorities to ignore cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin laundering:
The 12 suspected members of the gang were caught red-handed indulging in money laundering with the help of Bitcoin. The police further added that the operation which led to the arrest of these 12 individuals involved more than 100 different officers. There were search warrants for 21 different locations all across Brazil.
A similar case took place in the US, where A Drug dealer who was of French national was arrested by tracking his Bitcoin transactions.
In addition to the illegal activity of money laundering, tons of cocaine was also seized from various reports in Brazil. This indicates that the operation was pretty large and drugs were being sent to all parts of the world. The original manufacturing countries of the drugs were Bolivia and Colombia. Thereafter, they were to be routed to Africa, Europe as well as Asia through many different countries.
In order to fund the drug trade, Bitcoin was actively used. Bitcoin can be transferred quite easily anywhere in the world. This is one of the main reasons why the gang used a virtual currency in order to fund their operations.
The Federal police, however, has not released exact figures as to how much in Bitcoin was used in order to fund the drug trade. It is however assumed that the amount is pretty significant as it was being routed 2 different countries all over the world. In addition to that, there were airport employees and truck drivers and even businessmen were arrested in connection with money laundering as well as the drug trade. This clearly indicates that the gang had pretty fast operations which were spread all over the country. Hopefully, with these seizures and arrests, the drug trade will slow down.
