Bitcoin Forum

http://us.cnn.com/2014/01/15/world/americas/panama-airport-suitcases-cash/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Bet you wish you known bitcoin now huh? how you like dem apples? lol

This is great.

There are a lot of people who say "Criminals will never use bitcoin b/c of the exchange rate!"

Well, when 7.2 mil turns to zero because you're trying to carry it through a fucking airport, how smart a criminal are you now? A 25% exchange rate fluctuation don't seem so bad now, eh?

 ;D ;D ;D

Yeah, we need more criminals and we should bring pirates back and make that a thing again

I was wondering where all the pirates went.

Regarding "they better have used bitcoin", I like this story much: http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/07/23/nine-taiwanese-accused-of-smuggling-60-75kg-of-gold-in-their-anuses/

Gold lost, multiple anuses hurt, smuggle - a failure. While he could just put the usb stick on the keys and pass customs without having 30 gold pieces up the ass.

May I ask how was he going to convert 7.2 mil in bitcoins at Honduras and back to dollars in Panama without getting noticed?
That is not any easy task to do using localbitcoins.com  ;D

 :-X

Just find some bums/3rd party, make them some accounts and make a wire transfer.

Less risky.

You'd have to get a bank account to rade for btc anyway, and 7 mil through local bitcoin is not feasible. Don't get me started on gold.

OP you are forgetting that most criminals are either illiterate or don't know anything about technology. They just believe in hard cash.

in the near future TSA will make you login to your wallet with a gun to year head (after knee capping you) to show them how many Bitcoins you have.

On second thoughts, the btc version of this story would only have been bad PR and scared more lawmakers....

This should be a pretty good rebuttal to those jerkoffs who proclaim bitcoins are only ideal for money laundering etc. I'm sure these guys had heard of bitcoins and I'm sure they would have happily used them. But how the hell do you turn $7M into bitcoins when you're in honduras, and how do you do the reverse in Panama?

At the same time, this also should be seen as a defect in bitcoins. These guys could have been legitimate buyers and/or sellers of some goods and they would have had an equally tough time using bitcoins. Not exactly a great recommendation if the banking system is much easier to use.

OP perhaps you should change the title to "how could these guys have pulled this off using bitcoins?"

Fascinating claim. One I am not inclined to believe without any supporting evidence.

The world is being ran by gangsters fuck what you believe!  ;)

Then after you show them, they'll proceed to arrest you for not following TSA regulations

I am pretty sure that if they actually knew how bitcoins works they could easily find someone who could do the "favor" of exchanging $ 7M for, let's say, $ 5M worth of BTC and then in Panama another big guy to buy these $ 5 M for, let's say, $ 4M, and then you have almost half of your money with 0% chance of getting caught.

What would that person then do with that money is the real question though?

You do not have to declare funds you have on your credit card, now don't you?

Holy crap why wouldn't he have used it ?  :o

I beg to differ. Enter Bitcoin "Don", able to convert millions for only 20%. "Don" has no problem converting back, ready for the next customer.

Honduran boards and exits plane with standard carry-on, and is picked up by limo, curtesy of "Don" and brought to his Panamanian villa. After waiting for the a confirmation or two over a glass of cognac, a suitcase is passed, and off the customer goes.

No need to worry about any funny business, because at a 20% vig, why kill the golden goose.

Sure! might as well keep on encouraging bitcoin's usefulness as a criminal money laundering vehicle

When everything is made a "crime", and all transactions are "money laundering", damn right bitcoin should be encouraged as being a useful vehicle for exercising victimless economic liberty.

Criminals using bitcoin are high tech criminals, dramatically increased the difficulty to be a criminal  ;D