Ireland’s Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) says it accessed and seized a cryptocurrency wallet holding 500 Bitcoin (BTC), worth more than $35 million, after breaking into one of 12 wallets tied to a convicted drug dealer. CAB credited Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) for hosting operational meetings at its headquarters in The Hague and supplying “highly complex technical expertise and decryption resources” that were crucial to the operation.
Blockchain intelligence firm Arkham labeled the wallet “Clifton Collins: Lost Keys.” According to Arkham, the 500 BTC were moved to Coinbase Prime on Tuesday, more than a decade after the coins were originally deposited. Arkham lists Collins as controlling 14 addresses with combined holdings of roughly 5,500 BTC, valued at about $391 million.
Collins was arrested in 2017 after police discovered cannabis in his car. Authorities allege he used proceeds from his drug activities to purchase about 6,000 BTC in late 2011 and early 2012, spreading the coins across a dozen wallets. Collins reportedly printed the wallet keys on a single A4 sheet and hid that paper inside the aluminum cap of a fishing-rod case at his rented residence. After his arrest and a five-year sentence for growing and selling cannabis, the landlord cleared the property and disposed of Collins’s belongings; Collins has said the fishing-rod case was stolen before the landlord entered the premises.
Because Bitcoin private keys control access to funds, losing a key normally makes coins permanently inaccessible under public-key cryptography. That makes CAB’s recovery of the 500 BTC a notable development in law enforcement’s ability to regain cryptocurrency tied to criminal activity.
Cointelegraph has contacted the CAB and An Garda Síochána for comment.
