South Australian Police authorities have recently arrested an individual who is suspected of being involved in illegal activities and money laundering involving cryptocurrency on the dark web. The authorities have seized cryptocurrency tokens worth nearly $1.5 million.
A Police official has told the news media that: “The investigation identified illicit activity on a dark web marketplace, attributed that activity to a real-life person in South Australia, identified and traced cryptocurrency used in the offending, and then ultimately led to a successful search and seizure operation.”
There have been several cases of illegal activities occurring on the dark web involving cryptocurrency. In one instance, a resident from New Jersey paid a hitman on the dark web 40 BTC in May 2016 (equivalent to $20,000 at the time) to eliminate a child who was set to testify against them in a case. This individual was subsequently sentenced to six years and six months in prison.
In another case, a woman from Nevada received a five-year prison sentence for hiring a dark web hitman service to carry out a murder plot against her ex-husband. She transferred 12 BTC (valued at around $5,000 at the time) to the site for this purpose.
A recent study conducted by RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, found that judges tended to impose harsher penalties on criminals in Australia who utilized Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for their illicit activities compared to those who used traditional fiat currencies.
