Polish authorities raided and arrested a criminal group smuggling drugs worth $4.6 million to the United States, local media reported Tuesday.
Poland Arrests Drug Traffickers Using Crypto
The drug contained 250,000 pills of opioids, a substance used to treat moderate to severe pain. The organized crime police department in Lublin and the Police Central Investigation Office arrested the head of the group and eight other members, totaling nine criminals.
The authorities confisticated assets worth $1.74 million including cars, real estate, jewelry and cryptocurrencies.
According to the report, the group has been operating for a few years and constantly smuggling drugs to the US and occasionally to Great Britain.
Regular courier services are being used by the group as a means to move their drugs and their clients pay them using cryptocurrencies.
Polish authorities collaborated with US agents of Homeland Security Investigations. Both agencies have been investigating the criminals for the past 12 months before arresting them.
During the raid in Lublin, Łódź and Radom, 12,500 illegal pills were found in the criminal’s possession. Authorities also seized electronics and packaging equipment as well as $562,327 kept in crypto wallets.
The criminals were charged with selling and smuggling illegal substances and involvement in a money laundering act.
Criminals Exploiting Crypto
As cryptocurrencies continue to surge and near the mainstream adoption stage, they are also being increasingly used by criminals to carry out all sorts of illicit acts.
Coinfomania reported in March that crypto aided $25 billion in money laundering by drug cartels in Mexico and Colombia.
To avoid authorities from noticing suspicious movement in their bank accounts, the cartels split their dirty money into smaller amounts and deposited them into different bank accounts and then used the accounts to continually buy BTC online to pay their partners.
