For the first time in the history of Czech Republic Customs, they have seized cryptocurrency related to a drug investigation.
According to Czech Customs, seven people suspected of dealing in drugs in the Czech Republic were buying bulk quantities of drugs on the dark web and reselling them throughout the Czech Republic. Czech Customs are accusing the suspects of regularly purchasing MDMA, LSD, and anabolic steroids on dark web markets. Czech Customs say that this has been going on for a minimum of five years. The group also produced methamphetamine and cultivated marijuana for sale.
Czech Customs started investigating in September 2019 when Europol gave them a tip off. The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) found out that large shipments of drugs from the dark web were going into the Czech Republic. Europol the Czech authorities of the incoming drug packages. Czech Customs picked up the case from there and investigated the recipients of the shipments.
Czzech authorities say that, the suspected leader of the group
kept his earnings in cryptocurrency. The coins were stored in hardware wallets and in digital wallets on a number of mobile devices. The suspect handed over his Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets, but we don’t know what happened to his bitcoin.
MSK Spokeswoman, Zlatuše Viačková, said:
Three people from the group of accused are threatened with imprisonment for two to ten years. The other three can be imprisoned for one to five years. And the last person with an extended charge is threatened with imprisonment from eight to twelve years.