INTERPOL just announced a major operation targeting crypto criminals, freezing 400 wallets and 68,000 bank accounts. Police recovered $439 million in total assets.
Additionally, Eurojust can boast a similar success, arresting the leaders of a major crime ring. This group stole $116 million over several years before international law enforcement brought it down.
INTERPOL’s Crypto Operations
Although the ongoing crypto crime wave is continuing uninterrupted, law enforcement officials around the world are making major breakthroughs in freezing assets and apprehending perpetrators.
SponsoredToday, INTERPOL announced a stunning breakthrough, recovering huge sums of crypto in a series of operations.
INTERPOL’s press release described Operation HAECHI VI, a crypto crime investigation that spanned 40 countries and took most of this calendar year. Targeting seven types of scams, fraud, money laundering, and more, law enforcement froze over 400 token wallets and 68,000 bank accounts.
“While many people believe that funds lost to fraud and scams are often irretrievable, the outcomes of HAECHI operations demonstrate that recovery is indeed possible. As one of INTERPOL’s flagship financial crime operations, HAECHI is a prime example of how global cooperation can protect communities and safeguard financial systems,” claimed Theos Badege, Director pro tempore of INTERPOL’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Centre.
That being said, INTERPOL was frustratingly sparse on details about these massive crypto busts. Law enforcement seized $342 million in fiat currency, recovering $97 million in physical and digital assets.
It’s not clear how much of this sum represents crypto, but INTERPOL further claimed $16 million seized from illicit wallets.
International Crimefighting Successes
Most of this cooperation consisted of mapping out transnational organizations; INTERPOL only claimed direct arrests and asset seizures in three nations.
These criminals in turn represented operations across 40 states, but law enforcement didn’t provide further specific details of these illegal gangs.
INTERPOL isn’t the only agency that has been fighting international crypto crime recently; Eurojust just announced a major operation too. Specifically, the group made a series of arrests related to a $116 million fraud ring which that upon EU citizens in five countries.
This organization was active for several years before the authorities shuttered it. All this is to say, INTERPOL, Eurojust, and other transnational law enforcement agencies are hard at work in stopping crypto crime.
Although scams are more dangerous than ever right now, the fight isn’t over yet. High-profile operations like this can hopefully help defang the most pernicious and organized crypto scammers.
