Friday, December 6, 2021

Major Drug and Crypto Bust Occurs in Australia

In Australia, law enforcement officials have uncovered $1 million in cryptocurrency thanks to an alleged drug bust.

Australia; The Home of Crypto Crime?

The drugs were hidden inside a child’s toy being sent to a region called Perth. The paraphernalia confiscated by the police included nearly 28 grams in illegal MDMA tablets along with MDMA powder. The package was allegedly sent from somewhere in the United Kingdom.

Police officials examined the address the package was destined for. They then raided the home which was occupied by a 27-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman, both of whom had been engaged in selling cannabis and marijuana products. The couple also had access to a mobile device which was storing approximately $1.5 million in assorted crypto funds.

Situations like these do not strike a positive chord for the crypto industry, as one can undoubtedly imagine. While crypto has many positive uses and functions, several politicians and regulators refuse to accept its status as a powerful financial tool considering how often it’s tied to criminal activity or used in malicious schemes.

Perhaps the biggest example of this was the Silk Road black market, initially started by Ross Ulbricht, who was captured by law enforcement in 2013 and sentenced to life imprisonment two years later.

In addition, bitcoin and cryptocurrency often incites worry about several other forms of crime, including money laundering. This was one such argument by Senate members who were overseeing testimony delivered by Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, who’s company is on the verge of releasing Libra - one of the most controversial crypto projects to date.

Many were curious how Libra planned to keep customers’ private data secure while closing the door to white-collar financial crime. Zuckerberg has initially given into regulatory pressure and commented that Facebook will have no choice but to exit the Libra Association granted the project does not garner full regulatory approval.

Detective senior sergeant Paul Matthews - who’s overseeing the case in Australia - says that the cryptocurrency seizure is arguably the largest of its kind in the whole of Australia. Among the cryptocurrencies confiscated by police were bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP).

The week has been wrought with stories regarding hackers attempting to garner crypto funds that aren’t theirs. Perhaps the biggest story as of late involves the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Up Bit, which was recently robbed of nearly $50 million in ether tokens.

The Money Doesn’t Belong to You

Furthermore, a hacker allegedly tried to initiate a 51 percent attack on Vertcoin, though this attempt proved largely unsuccessful from a money-making perspective.

Australia has arguably become a major haven for cryptocurrency fraud and theft as of late, with several arrests being made just last August over an alleged cold-calling scheme that may have cheated investors out of as much as $2 million in digital funds.

The post Major Drug and Crypto Bust Occurs in Australia appeared first on Live Bitcoin News.



Major Drug and Crypto Bust Occurs in Australia