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MILLIONS OF EURO is being washed through online currencies and European banks by accountants and Belgian Bitcoin experts who are being paid by the Ireland’s biggest gangs.
Gardaí and international police have long suspected that the Kinahan drug gang had been washing its money through online currencies such as Bitcoin. However, last month’s arrest of a number of suspected drug traffickers in the Netherlands brought with it the seizure of what is known as a bitcoin mining rig.
The cartel has been losing stashes of money all over Dublin and on the continent in recent weeks and have been trying to move its money using different means. Gardaí had long suspected that they were involved in moving large amounts of the cryptocurrency, and lost month’s seizure would appear to confirm that thinking.
Now, gardaí have been briefed by Dutch police and Europol about what is found in the hard drives seized last month. It is hoped that the computers will give more information on the inner workings of the cartel. So far, information garnered from these hard drives as well as on the servers of an arrested Chilean drug baron last month has led international police to suspect that a Czech bank is the main institution through which cash is being laundered.
Earlier this week, Europol arrested 159 people and identified 766 so-called money mules in a continent-wide crackdown on illegally moving money.
A report by EUROJUST- the European Union’s Judicial Cooperation Unit, found that an increasing role of Bitcoin transactions was identified in the money laundering schemes used by the criminals.
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Delighted for them. Absolute sc^mbags. Never done a days work in their lives. I bet they’re all still singing on the dole too. Young fellas around the local area look up to these vile people. It’s about time their lifestyle was put to and end.
@Nurse on call: well said, vile human things
Really goes to show you..
The Police/Gardaí really dont have a freaking clue and are so far behind on the tech that is almost funny.. That is not a bitcoin mining rig and yes you can trace bitcoins. But lets not like facts like that get in the way of a “good” story.
@Brian Henoll: what is it ??
@Brian Henoll: Yes, It’s Dutch Police on the case
@Brian Henoll: You can only trace bitcoin transactions, if one consistently uses the same wallet address. I am pretty sure people paid to move the Kinahans cash are not, all they need to do is change the wallet address every time and it’s nigh on intracable…
@Brian Henoll: you must think theae bitcoin experts play by the rules. Not a chance. You can wash bitcoins same as actual cash using bitcoin shredders. they take a percentage for the service and shred bitcoin into thousands pf pieces reassembling i.to untraceable crypto currencies.
@Brian Henoll: Ah lad it goes to show that you really don’t have a clue!
@Brian Henoll: they really, really need a proper tech department in the Gardai, the problem is, any tech person on garda wages will be completely useless, any crypto expert will make upwards of 100k, so why would you settle for 35 and overtime? , its expensive to do it properly, and its probably easier to just call them all corrupt and useless, ‘a la Varadkar’.
@Paul Nolan:
Most likely a GPU mining rig. Graphics cards used to mine crypto (not bitcoin)
Looks very low scale to me, so probably just a hobby project.
And no they are not called shredders, they are called bitcoin tumblers/mixers.
I was involved in some forensic work back in 2015/2016 where a large number of bitcoins was stolen and moved through multiple tumblers.
Did not matter, we got the guy in the end. The weak point is always when you try and cash out.
Atm there are multiple privacy coins out there that claim to be fully anonymous, however bitcoin is not one of them.
Our “justice minister” can’t even find a few e mails for Christ sake!
@John Dman: this is all that matter
s now. read these quotes from Tusk -
https://www.rt.com/uk/411673-eu-brexit-ireland-tusk/
Personally I’d rather see the Irish Army Rangers just go in an blow them away, cuts out all the lawyers and bankers making money from crime..and have no doubt our bankers and legal system are coining from this cyber crime. I would put more faith in our underpaid military than a legion of accountants.
@zippo: with their 1 gun and army band? Need NATO on the case
Looks like they’re just trying to mine their own business!
@Grumpy Bollovks: You obviously know nothing about the “Irish Army Rangers” They are some of the best trained special forces in the world.
The bitcoin mining rig incorporates a number of hard drives which store the currency. – eh yea ok, thats not how it works
Mining rigs don’t have hard drives and they don’t store currency. They mine Crypto though hashing power.
@Sean Hyland: and that mining rig would take 20 yrs to mine 1 bitcoin by the looks of it. The gibberish of these bitcoin related articles is astounding.
@J: I know – the journal covering stories related to bitcoin could do with some basic researching the subject first – they ALWAYS get it wrong – and with respect to the Gardai – they operate a 20 year old poxy tech system called PULSE which is so far out of date its not funny – how they can be expected to be up to date with crypto currency and the advancements that the global criminal gangs are doing in the dark web and peer to peer transactions is a joke…..a basic knowledge of crypto mining shows that the real players set up in places where energy costs are low and fill warehouses with drives to mine – the days of using laptops at home to mine are over and the photos here show a Mickey Mouse set up that is akin to me making home brew pints in my garden and them showing pictures of my shed under the pretence that its a global threat to Diageo and part of a major criminal empire…seriously lads this is craggy island -the serious international criminals will be laughing their ass off at this.
@Pizyco: Nail. On. Head.
So it’s a ponzi scheme, which only exists in cyberspace and can disappear with a reboot!
Sounds legit!
Put me down for a million!
@Jarlath Murphy: as apposed to fiat currency and quantitive easing Put me down for 10 million usd
@Jarlath Murphy: you really sound like you know what your talking about …no that was a lie.
@Is Mise jay: the Fed’s machinery has been running at 11 for years
Guaranteed that the Gardai are not up to speed on Bitcoin. People still talk about it as if it is some kind of joke. I’m in Bangkok at the moment and there are many shops with a “Bitcoin Accepted” sign on the door same as Visa etc.
@Terry Cahill: Dutch Police are leading this.
@Terry Cahill: they are defo not up to speed – criminal have moved on to Monero for the most part / besides the fact and the acceptance of bitcoin really doesn’t have anything to do with using them using a peer to peer network to move and launder money around the world anyway – they can buy arms and drugs with crypto easily – this is one area that Ireland really needs to get past penalty points and whistleblowers and reform and invest serious cyber criminal divisions at Garda HQ because they are literally years behinds the criminals
@gregory: yes, I like the bit about Gardai being briefed… I would say it is more explaining than briefing. Place I go for Brekkie here accepts Bitcoin… sure the full whack American Brekkie with da pancakes and maple syrup is less than €3 !
@Pizyco: yes they can buy arms and drugs with crypto …. but strangely enough they also do with euro
@Is Mise jay: yes we know that but the piece is about them moving to Bitcoin and crypto mining which they have been moving to reduce the risks of large cash consignments being seized , try keep up
@Terry Cahill: bits of what?
“Although all of the Bitcoin transactions are public and can be seen, it is incredibly easy to move it to a number of digital wallets where the money can once again be moved, the amounts changed and all the time with no record of who the account holder is.”
Huh?
@J: translated to plain English / it easier to be anonymous and move money around using crypto currencies , they are getting more sophisticate all the time / and it’s a game of cat and mouse with law / oh and the mouse is winning by a massive distance
Hopefully these dirtbags are wiped off the planet, they really are the lowest of the low
I count 5 spelling/ grammatical mistakes in this article. How many did you get?
This article is badly written nonsense. Utter gibberish
@Paul Devlin: coo cool ga bla ugh reee daea, now that’s gibberish.
Bit off topic but on the topic of cryptocurrency, buy some Iota now while it’s cheap, If successful will change the world. The tangle will be the backbone of the Internet of things which will be worth 10s of trillions of dollars. The tangle will also be better than blockchain in every aspect with 0 fees and will be instant so there wouldn’t really be a reason to use bitcoin if it fulfils the goals that they say they are aiming to achieve.They have teamed up with huge companies like Microsoft cisco along with many others in the past week. Iota has gone up a dollar in the past couple of days but still cheap. Thank me in 10 years.
@will: jasus
@will: ah listen -our Garda are still appearing in front of committees talking about not being tax compliant and how the finances of the bar in temple more hasn’t got ‘best practice’ – by which they mean basic accounting and auditing – trying to discuss the evolution of the blockchain , iota and tangle is just a headfukk to them and the only thing your right about is that it wil likely be 10 years before they will even figure out what your talking about lol ….
Haven’t an Iota what you’re on about
@Cathal: Ya couldn’t be arsed explaining it fully, translation = Google iota, read about it,invest,wait 10 years,buy mansion.
What could possibly go wrong?
Garreth you write such jibberish at times it is cringe worthy.
Even with free electricity that mining rig there would be lucky to break even.
A mining rig does not consist of hard drives. It consists of ASIC miners. That particular one looks like a GPU miner set up which would be obsolete by todays standards.
I suggest you youtube a chinese bitcoin mining farm and see what is involved.
Also bitcoins arent actually stored on the “mining rig” either.
Without keys to the wallets the dutch, Irish or American authorities can do jack s**t about it. Even if they did seize a wallet it can be regenerated elsewhere later with a “seed”.
The kinihans are cartel level. Have you any idea of the volumes cartels deal in? They don’t really take payments for multiple tonnes of cocaine in bitcoin.
Also have you any shred of evidence that actually connects the kinahans to this ” mining rig” which is a laughable set up btw. Or what connected them to yer man El rico in your other article.
If the kinahans were at it, it would be on an industrial scale in China. They probably aren’t though.
@James Wond:if you look how cartels are operating , large volumes of illicit goods / drugs and cash moved globally / ya would conclude with 100% certainty they are dabbling in crypto and using the anon features of Monero to transact / take a look at the mining videos and see how comical the Mickey Mouse “mining ‘ looks in the photo on this article .
@Dave Hammond: I am fully aware of industrial mining that is why I mentioned it. Small size dealers would be involved in crytpo yes. Cartels, not so sure. Tonnes of stuff enters Antwerp and rotterdam everyday. You can’t buy 8 tonnes of coke any any darknet markets yet. Rest assured.
@James Wond: I think you missed the point – there is a shift to drug dealing at lower levels using Monero and crypto – of course this means the money / profits move up the chain to cartels using anon payment systems and ultimately is shifting their business into using more digital currency as its more difficult to trace and easier to shift across borders – i’d bow to your all seeing and all knowing knowledge of exactly what levels of deals are or aren’t happening in Rotterdam today in terms of cash v crypto but only a fool would think the cartels aren’t aggressively in this space. The ‘mining’ aspect of this story is a sideshow / distraction – using the crypto network for transfers / anonymity is what has Europol and NSA / US Govts concerned at the mo …….I wouldn’t be so rest assured that deals of 8 tonnes aren’t heading there already…not at all
@James Wond: once the street level of deals is shifting from cash to crypto to launder then of course the cartels at the top of the food chain are movers in this space……
So the kinahans are washing their money by investing in 5k work of graphics cards and making about 8 euro a day.
Pure evil! Lol for real though if they have a sizeable amount of funds the private keys are in cold storage somewhere you wouldn’t know if if you found it.
The state of that comms cabinet. Have they no pride in their IT infrastructure?
A little bird told me that the recent rise of BC is down to corporations who are using it keep their stashes fluid. Of course that bird could be misinformed. I’m sure that any respectable company would never be involved as they all pay whatever tax where and when they have to.
In 2012 a gangster was paid €20 in Bitcoins. Today he’s a millionaire!
Looks like a pretty small mining rig to be laundering all that money? …iv seen videos in China of whole warehouses wired up with asic cards
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