Dark Web operation: Australian police conduct largest Bitcoin seizure

TL;DR Breakdown

• Police in Australia conducts largest crypto seizure ever worth $6M.
• Properties across several areas were also seized in connection with Dark Web crimes.
• Burst operation part of investigation to uncover dark web market place, Silk road.

Australian police have made the largest cryptocurrency seizure ever recorded in the country after it seized Bitcoin worth $6million, proceeds from Dark Web operation in Victoria.

According to local media in the country, the money was from an investigation into online drug trafficking on the dark web.

Australian police noted that the operation was a joint effort with the East Gippsland Crime Investigation Unit and Bass Coast Crime Investigation Unit. Apart from the huge crypto seized, properties in Kinglake, Preston, Prahran, Dollar, and South Yarra were also confiscated.

Other items seized were drugs believed to be “cannabis, Psilocin (magic mushrooms), MDMA, prescription medication and white powder and crystals.”

The police said they also restrained two other properties and vehicles, with total properties seized pegged at $9.3 million.

In the midst of all the crypto and property seizures made from the Dark Web, three people were also arrested in the investigation, including a 30-year-old Preston man and a 31-year-old Kinglake woman.

However, those arrested have been released pending further inquiries.

Dark Web and 21st-century drug trafficking

In a statement by Commander Mick Frewen, Victoria Police Crime Command, he noted that the case is one that highlights the modern nature of serious and organized crime.

He describes the act as 21st-century version of drug trafficking and money laundering, stating that criminals use technology (Dark Web) to harm the community.

The commander said further that drug traffickers believe that peddling drugs online is a “safer” option because it provides relative anonymity, but the result of the investigation shows otherwise.

Although it started this year, the operation is part of a more extensive nine-year investigation by the Cyber Crime Squad and Criminal Proceeds Squad into Silk Road, a dark web marketplace created as far back as 2011.