Ireland’s Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) seized 6,000 BTC from a Dublin resident who was accused of growing cannabis on property located in the Wicklow Mountain region. The police found around €450,000 of marijuana plants but the €52 million ($56.1M) of BTC was the biggest single-value asset seizure by the CAB since 1996. A new era could be upon us where governments holding large quantities of bitcoin will be the norm.
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Ireland’s Criminal Assets Bureau Seizes 6,000 BTC Worth $56M
Three years ago during a Garda Síochána (police) inquiry, a man named Clifton Collins got caught driving his 4×4 with a small stash of cannabis. Collins lived in Crumlin and the police found that he had around €450,000 ($486k) worth of marijuana growing at a property in Corr na Móna in Co Galway. The officers also found the 49-year-old had a stash of around 6,000 BTC ($56.1M) and the police believe Collins invested his drug money into the crypto. Because the asset was so large in value, the police called in the CAB and they took over the remainder of the investigation. Regional reports in Ireland note that the seizure was the largest single-value asset ever taken by the CAB in 24 years.
It took a while to get the ball rolling but by July 2019, prosecutors allowed the CAB to secure a temporary forfeiture
