Irish Criminal Assets Agency unable to access $378 million in Bitcoin seized from drug traffickers

The Irish Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) is keeping bitcoins seized from drug dealers in 2019, even though their value has soared to €345 million ($378 million). , is no longer accessible.

The bitcoins were worth about $56 million when they were seized from Clifton Collins in 2020 following an Irish High Court ruling that they were the result of criminal activity.

Collins was ordered to hand over his bitcoins to the CAB under the Proceeds of Crime Act after police discovered he was cultivating cannabis at his home. A freezing order was issued to prevent the transfer.

However, according to a recent article, irish timesCAB has been unable to access Bitcoin stored in 12 wallets for the past four years, during which time the price of Bitcoin has increased from approximately $9,000 to current levels of over $62,000.

Collins first invested in Bitcoin in 2011 using profits from his drug business, at a time when Bitcoin was trading between $0.30 and $29. It closed in 2011 at $4.72.

He claims he hid a document containing the BTC wallet seed phrase in a fishing rod case in a rented property in County Galway. Mr. Collins claimed that the case was lost due to a break-in at his home, but it is also possible that the eviction of the premises after his arrest caused the document to be lost.

According to the CAB's annual report, assets including 89 bitcoins and “fishing boats, gyroplanes, metal detectors, electric bicycles and various vehicles” were seized, and 1.2 million euros ($1.3 million) was recovered from Collins. It is said that

confiscated bitcoin

Bitcoins seized in criminal cases have proven to be a lucrative source of revenue for governments around the world.

Earlier this year, the German government sold about 2.6 billion euros ($2.9 billion) worth of bitcoins seized in a money laundering investigation, flooding the market with bitcoins and causing prices to fall.

The U.S. government plans to sell a $4.4 billion stash of bitcoins seized from the dark web market Silk Road after the Supreme Court this week refused to hear a case over bitcoin ownership.

In 2020, U.S. Marshals sold 4,041 BTC that was confiscated as a result of multiple criminal, civil, and administrative actions. The stash, worth about $40 million at the time, would have been worth more than $250 million at today's prices.

Edited by Stacey Elliott.