Dutch arrest 10 men for using Bitcoin to launder €20m drugs money

Ten men suspected of using the digital currency Bitcoin to launder up to €20 million ($22 million) of criminal money made from online drug deals have been arrested in the Netherlands, Dutch prosecutors said. The men, described as all in their 20s and with Dutch nationality, were arrested on Tuesday in coordinated raids on 15 locations around the country, said spokeswoman Valentine Hoen of the country’s Fiscal Information and Investigation Service. Prosecutors believe the men laundered millions for drug dealers who sold their wares at online marketplaces on the “Dark Web” – web sites that are invisible to search engines and only reachable using specialized software.

Investigators seized luxury cars, cash, bank accounts and other goods abroad including an unknown amount of Bitcoin in cooperation with officials in the United States, Australia, Lithuania and Morocco

Statement from prosecutors

Bitcoin is the preferred means of payment on such sites because it can be quickly transferred between users in any country without using a bank, making it difficult to trace. Hoen said the actual drug sellers were the subject of a continuing investigation by the country’s drug squad, although 15 kilograms of chemical precursors for the manufacture of Ecstasy were found in raids on Tuesday.

Europe bitcoin arrest