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The terror financing ring reportedly bought cryptocurrency coupons in licensed tobacco shops across France.

A large goup of accomplaces allegedly financing a jihadist network in Syria have been arrested after a sting operation by French police — despite choosing cryptocurrency coupons in an attempt to cover their tracks.

In a statement, police said that "constant surveillance of these networks prompted terrorist organisations to seek more opacity by using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin," as reported on Sept. 30.

Since 2019, the 29 accomplices have allegedly been supporting the operations of an  Al-Qaeda affiliate terror organization, called “Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham.”

The network’s architects are reportedly two French jihadists in their mid-20s, who are both thought to be in northeastern Syria at present. Both were sentenced to 10 years in prison in absentia in 2016.

The 29 members of the network were busted after being caught purchasing cryptocurrency coupons worth between 10 and 150 euros each ($12–$176) on multiple occasions in recent months from tobacco outlets across France.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/french-police-arrest-terror-financing-ring-that-used-bitcoin-coupons

I do believe these kind of people don't understand a simple thing " Bitcoins was made for the people so that they can finally get away from the oppression of big companies and the government itself, thud if they do any harm to the image of bitcoins , they are not gaining profit in any way , nor they are causing problems for anyone , but for them "

These kind of people cannot even appreciate an invention that was made for the people to gain some power. Especially associating bitcoins with terrorism is beyond irreparable.

This is why government wants everyone to do KYC and such even for the most private wallets !

Bitcoin is a currency.
Any currency can be used for evil means.

Dont terrorists and drug dealers use USD as well?
Bitcoin is just a currency.

True! But bitcoin is little extra special than any central bank issued currencies - even you know that fact! So there is no denying of the fact that bitcoin has given extra power to these terrorist outfits or drug dealers to continue their shady deals with extra ease because bitcoin is pseudo-anonymous in nature! Silkroute was one of its biggest beneficiaries!

While it's a fact that bitcoin is just a currency, it is also a fact that bitcoin makes the financial transactions easier for such miscreants. Banking channel is highly monitored around the world so crypto has now become their ideal choice as majority of the illegal incidents that we see around the world, has some association with bitcoin. Also it is a fact that bitcoin has nothing to with it because people can use bitcoin as per their own will. But such kind of associations definitely takes a dig at its reputation. Sad but true!   

It’s funny that terrorists and fraudsters choose bitcoin as a currency to save their asses only to be nabbed and jailed afterwards. ‘Hiding in plain sight’ or using fiat to launder money and circulate it on all fronts have always been the best way to do it, and law enforcement won’t suspect a thing as long as the transfers and the networks are smoothly planned.

They do not learn. Bitcoin is never a safe currency when you’re doing something this big and bad due to its openness to the public. They might have met a few successes on what they do, but after some time they’ll get caught, and look at where they are right now. Good thing those outlets noticed something strange.

Another reason for non-bitcoiners to give their opinion that bitcoin is just used for things like this.

If the discussion goes for bitcoin, all they think is that it's all and pure evil. They will not think that having hard cash can also be used for funding even before the invention of bitcoin. There is prejudice if the news is describing bitcoin as it's not a money for everyone.

This s a crime, whatever the currency used, it is not the fault of the currency, but the people do.

I agree with this:
If we blame Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies because they are used for any crimes, so we should also blame other currencies used for it. If they talk that BTC is easy to be used for any crimes, let's compare how much currency is also used for those crimes.
So, what is the point? The criminals will always do everything and use everything to support and soften their ways of crimes.

In this case, I still have no idea when there are people that hate BTC because it is used for crimes. Here, note for people who still hate BTC because it is used for crimes (as they think):
1. You do not know how BTC can change everyone's life
2. BTC has value, more than what you think, that is why we love it.
3. BTC is something very worthy, you may not know how we can earn profits form it
4. You consider if BTC is used for crimes, you know, you will always think so if your mind is limited in one small box only.
5. Cryptocurrency is also about technology, you may not be able to follow the development if you hate them.
And many other reasons again. 

I hate when news sources tend to focus on the intricate details that Bitcoin was used, in an attempt to sway the opinion of the public to associate Bitcoin with criminals. This is not accepted by the Bitcoin community, and certainly wasn't the intended use for Bitcoin. However, I know that this will be spun in many of the tabloids as being such, that by design Bitcoin allows these sorts of things to exist or something along those lines (ignoring the fact that there's a public ledger which records every transaction in existence). I've seen some drivel over the years. Its highly likely that this terrorism ring, were using several other currencies to as well.

The real focus here should be why terrorism still exists in 2020, and what we can do to stop it.


I'd argue that terrorism is outright wrong, and isn't made worse by using Bitcoin or any other currency for that matter. Terrorism is usually a crime against humanity, which happens to be in this case linked with Bitcoin. However, there has been many before (too many) linked with fiat currencies. The people who commit terrorism aren't known for having much appreciation for anything other than their own motives, let alone something as insignificant as Bitcoin when we are talking about real world lives.

We do all hate this one and this had been always the case when crimes and scams/hacking incident to happen where news source are really elaborating and
emphasizing that Bitcoin is involved which if its delivered on different way then people who are non-bitcoiners will surely believe that Bitcoin is evil.
This isnt something new and on this case, people would have an another bad impression towards it and that really slows down the adoption.
Bitcoin had just been used by other means just like on typical fiat.

There is some truth in what you said.
But banks are highly corrupted and there are billions flowing to shady businesses
Look at the recent European banks scandal

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-moneylaundering-explainer-idUSKCN1RG1XI


You cannot move that amount of money with bitcoin easily

Your words may ring true but when it comes to this kind of people who are trapped in an ideological echo chamber, it will be for naught. You are an optimist when it comes to these which explains your exclusion of people with ill intent exist. By the way, these jihadist appreciate the invention, that is why they are using it for terror finance. They appreciate the quasi-anonymity that bitcoin offers. The tainting of the name is definitely irreperable but if we as a cryptocommunity does not roll with the punches then our goal will only get so far.

I'm not sure I have ever heard of cryptocurrency coupons... I wonder why they opted for them when usually people just use cryptos. It's a shame that these coupons were introduced in France to attract people to the crypto sphere, but terrorists are those who got interested. I wonder what's the share of people who genuinely got interested to people who exploited this system for illegal purposes. I'm glad they were caught because financing terrorism is plundering Bitcoin's reputation. That being said, I do agree with bitmover that fiat is also used for illegal activities, and I've argued elsewhere (but I can't find the post right now) that it's used more actively than cryptos.

In the aforementioned article it is clearly stated that these terrorist organizations are being financed with cryptocurrency coupons exclusively because of the fact they have no access to banks, they are isolated from financial system. What does it mean? If they weren't isolated, they would be recieving bank transfers instead, not stupid coupons worth 12$ each. How many such cuopons do they need to buy a Kalashnikov? A hundred maybe or more. Sounds ridiculous. I would not be surprised if this story turns out to be fake. Or it is written by a bitcoin hater whose main point is to demonize bitcoin once again.

So they bought it freaking physically. 🙄
Stupid idea to do that since they compromised the very vital point and that's anonymous nature of transaction.

But it's good that this racket was blown off since it was being used to corrupt the use of bitcoin. Just imagine this kind of money might be getting used to buy artillery and terrorism purposes. Who knows, there could be numerous rackets like these and they might just be using power of bitcoin for such evil stuff already. No doubt in that.

I agree, a rather strange scheme for buying weapons. They also write that hundreds of people used such coupons, and this was invented for the introduction of cryptocurrency in France. But in theory, after that, the sale of coupons should be banned again. The terrorists should have bought such coupons for a fairly large amount, and the most interesting thing is the process of transferring the data of these coupons in encrypted form. Quite a lengthy task considering the volume.
But if such operations were successfully completed and terrorists were caught, then this is a very good job on the part of the police.

If you compare the total amount of cryptocurrencies used from terrorist, within the totally of "fiat" currencies, you will be shocked! :O
I mean, 99,999 % of transactions are made with "fiat" currencies! At any level people sell illegal stuff with "cash" and not bitcoin...
Ok blackmarket and ok there are some group that use cryptocurrencies but statistically speaking they are just an useless percentage of the total!
Cash doesn't leave track. for sure it leaves less track then a bitcoin transaction. We should ban cash? Well in Italy there are some discussions about it ... but it's more related tax evasion.
I think these kind of news are getting popular just because it's involved bitcoin and we know, a strong propaganda has been done in the past years as a currency used for "illegal stuffs".

I totally agree with you that Bitcoin is just a currency.  Bad things can happen to any currency.  Drug mafias can continue their bad activities with any currency. It could be a paper coin, it could be a gold coin.  Similarly, drug mafias can transact money through bitcoin. However, it is also through bitcoin that they get an additional benefit.  For example, there is no problem in clearing bank accounts.  So many times bad people use Bitcoin as a secure medium of transaction.

Majority of illegal activities are still using fiat. But sometimes media will blow-up news like this. Because it is another testament that crypto is being used in illegal activities. But for those who are informed and educated about crypto. They know better how to treat this kind of news. It won't even create a dent on how they look at crypto or bitcoin.

Good thing the police managed to caught them. For sure they are going to use those funds for something "not good" once they meet their goals. I really hate these terrorists and I hope the French Police or other enforcers gets to track down all these mad people. Now I want them to buy all the BTC they got from the suspects for donuts, they deserve it!

It's you who doesn't understand what bitcoin is, it is freedom, outside the control of anybody.
Just as a knife can be used to cut a cake or stab something, a car to transport people to a hospital or run over innocent people bitcoin can be used for anything that the ones holding it wants, and furthermore, the people labeled terrorist are doing exactly what you say bitcoin was supposed to do, get away from the oppression of the government.

Get used to it, as bitcoin will gain more traction and be used daily by more people it will be used by the same guys that have used fiat till now to commit crimes. Or do you believe in fairytales and think that once we get rid of fiat there will be no more kidnapping, money laundering, crimes, drug deals?

This happens usually in everyday because of its hidden engagements. The reasons for using bitcoin here is hidden transfer. I saw last week Twitter hacking using bitcoin payments. So now it is easy to collect for hidden transfer by using bitcoin payments system.

I'm not saying that the media is wrong but if you look at the facts as presented you'd at least wonder how 10-15 euros going to support such a large network. Even if they do it everyday, surely that's not enough  ???


The fact that if such an organisation had this described terrorist role and use cryptocurrency to achieve that should not be surprising. Crypto has long been criticised for its identify protection of its users, it is not surprising that people who are involved in wrongdoing adapt to new ways...

One can only hope that this type of argument isn't going to be used insensibly when negotiating regulation around BTC and crypto. As this isn't going to deter people from doing it, they'll just use a different alternative.

Who says banking channel is fair in the dealings!! Even they are super shady in many cases. We have seen many example of such things in my country recently. Search Google about PMC bank and Yes Bank scandals.

I have only said that banking channel is highly monitored so a criminal will have to make good connections with the banking people and bribe money to continue their shady dealings through banking channel. That's where crypto came in and took away the risk!

What hidden transfers? These days you have to buy coins somewhere. If you buy on an exchange you will not hide anything.

It was pretty easy to do (and still is) for old holders, people who mined their coins or got them before AML laws came into place. They still own coins that are not in any way connected with their real life identities.

It's not new at all, we have already heard or read news about some terrorist groups that are also using crypto for transactions. This kind of news may bring a bad image to crypto and misconception to others but it's not really crypto, it's the people who used them for wrongful activities. Regardless of what kind of currency, these terrorists will always find ways to do what they want, the only good thing about this news is that the police authorities were able to catch them.

These words are strange, it implies that the entire network were busted because they were found purchasing BTCitcoin coupons worth 10 to 150 Euros.I am not following the case but these are just made up words just to add BTCitcoin and nothing else. What are the chances of an investigation taking place when people are purchasing coupons worth 10 to 150 Euros, does that imply that the entire BTCitcoin sales are closely monitored by the authorities and cross checking every sales::).

Its good to know that criminals cannot longer operate their work under the anonymity of Bitcoin, surely this is enough proof for regulators that Bitcoin can be regulated and not full proof for money laundering, and criminal activities thanks to the Blockchain, you can look up any public addresses that process transactions, and vast technology to trace that specific user.

Like many terrorists who don't know about Bitcoin and don't understand Bitcoin, they thought using Bitcoin would be safe
and impossible to trace. Even though in fact Bitcoin is easier to trace, because transactions using Bitcoin are very transparent,
that's why corrupt governments do not accept Bitcoin. So when reading an article about the French police catching terrorists
funding networks using Bitcoin, makes me even more sure Bitcoin is easy to trace.

They have thoght they'll never get caught.
 Even they used such bitcoin coupons for their evil purposes, authorities will gonna find them for sure. It was such a disappointment that those tobacco companies that was firstly adopted blockchain and cryptocurrency coupons and payments were just adopted it for the main purpose of supporting the terrorists.
 
 Sad that those were just using bitcoin for evil acts and not for the main purpose of using it as a new technology and  new form of payments for the development of systems.

I am ever the optimist ..... I am not focused on the fact that they used Bitcoin for their criminal operation, but rather that they were caught doing this. Let's say they smuggled in some Gold or Diamonds and they sold that to finance their operation... then this would not even reach the mainstream media... but now that Crypto currencies were used... the media is all over it.  ::)

It just shows you... if you want to hit someone ... you will always find a stick and a reason to do it.. right.  :(   The centralization of Crypto currency trades ...will offer opportunities for law enforcement to catch these terrorists.  ;)

Look up public address and trace that user? Yes, you can use the blockchain to to look up a transaction, but you won't be able to trace that user with just the public address since bitcoin is pseudonymous. If someone can somehow associate the address with a person (like maybe he completed a kyc form on one of his exchange account and used this address to withdraw), it is then he can be identified.

Its 10 to 150 EURO. Not 15 EUR. And they are like 29 of the people buying it everyday. So yeah, they do rack up enough funds within a month.

That's exactly what's happening, and big banks get exposed for that, but with very little actual consequence. And Bitcoin might be useful for small criminals, but it's actually hard to move large amounts of money undetected, because Bitcoin itself is not that big, so some sudden spikes in transaction amounts would attract interest of chain analysis. So, banks are still the choice of big criminals like drug cartels, mafia, corrupt politicians, dictators, etc.

and this is why the reputation of Bitcoin becomes worst because of stupid people that dealing with it without a formal knowledge.
they do transacting while know nothing about cryptocurrencies and after being victimized they will blame Bitcoin.
this must be stopped either the scammers and also the noob victim.
they must learn first before using this or else this will happen everytime.
even those people that knows bitcoin sometimes can be lured by scammers what more the noobs.

As most of the users mentioned Bitcoin is just a currency. A coin has got two sides, same is with bitcoin and other things that having value. It is up to the user making use of it. In this news the terrorism supporters have used bitcoin as a source. Same as this USD too is used in large scale in the global market on illegal needs. The media is the one that always tries to indicate bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as wrong instead of indicating the person involved in it.

You're right but as we all know its illegal use bitcoin in some areas.
There are many advantages of bitcoin but there are some disadvantages too, Bitcoin can be used anonymous worldwide without knowing anyone.
You can not reach that person who receives or send the bitcoins.

That's the reason the police can never approach you. The use of bitcoin can make you more secure from anyone who wants to trace you. They can be caught if they use USD instead of bitcoin

Exactly. Just like any object can be used as a murder weapon. Criminals will use everything at their disposal. Terrorists using tabacco shops to fund whatever they doing sounds hilerous and strange to me at the same time.

 
Goverment wants you to pass KYC? For what? Which goverment? Maybe insane ones. Good luck with that.

Damn,I never knew that Bitcoin "coupons" are being sold in tobacco outlets in France.
Perhaps Bitcoin gift cards/coupons will be an easy way to introduce BTC to more non-tech savvy people and help for further adoption of Bitcoin.Unfortunately,Bitcoin can be used for evil deeds,not only for good deeds.
By the way,good job done by the French police.

We're not afraid of their bad named called because no  currency under the watch of the World Bank that's not been used for dubious illicit transactions online. Though them be caught in this action makes it  clear that, the hidden transactions we all thought before now aren't hidden anymore. Bitcoin still the very best  online currency that has the solution to world financial problems, in respective of the bad guys usage bitcoin is the true money.

yes I totally agree with you bitmover, Bitcoin is a currency, many people use it in the wrong way so as to damage the image of Bitcoin in society,
Bitcoin problem for what?
if bitcoin is used for charity, people will think good, but if Bitcoin is used for evil they will think Bitcoin is bad,
it all depends on what people use it for, bitcoin is just a digital currency so it depends on what it is used for, not the wrong bitcoin but the wrong person using it.

This ways or acts from certain groups of people make a big negative impact concerning the impression and popularity they gave towards Bitcoin usage which makes people as well as the government think that it must not be legalized for the fact that it can be used as a tool for fraudulent act and terrorism. Yes it is kinda true but Bitcoin was just a currency and to begin with, it must not be blamed for all those activities because people are the ones abusing the usage of it into negative activities that on the first place usage of Bitcoin is intended for good use because of its decentralization and giving people possibilities and opportunities to gain a handy amount of money from it. It is just so bad that those kind of people is making a stain on Bitcoin's reputation for doing such activities and making use of Bitcoin to make their transactions possible to be conducted.

It’s good news that they were caught, but I hate seeing news like this that has something to do with Bitcoin. Maybe some people will not understand it, but this is a very bad news for Bitcoin. If there continues to be news like this, the government might be prompted to start declaring Bitcoin illegal and you know what that means for cryptocurrency market.

Bitcoin is a good technology, but some people are hell-bent on destroying everything by misusing it for the wrong purposes. I’m always happy when these evil people are caught by the government and punished for their crimes, but at the same time I am sad that they are using Bitcoin for all these crimes.

Regarding the coupons, I don't think it's good to  encourage people to use physical bitcoin-like money as a substitute for digital bitcoin. Because bitcoin was never designed to be used physically in the first place. We shouldn't try to backport bitcoin's functionality to physical usage because it doesn't make sense to do so, these "crypto coupons" are cumbersome and hard to redeem.

In an era when everyone is transitioning from cash payments to credit cards (despite all the risks of using banks that have been outlined in several threads here), we should be trying to get all adopters to use electronic devices to store and send their bitcoin.

China has already achieved fully digital payments so it's not like it's impossible.

Should have bought a digital gift card from Bitrefill - paid in lightning. You don't need an ID to open an account. Massive loophole in the system right now. Good luck tracking lightning, especially after conjoining the UTXO. Law enforcement agencies are going to struggle hard as privacy tech improves - they should just give up, but they won't.

Whenever I hear this kind of news, people reaction is "OMG... they've used Bitcoin to keep their transaction underground, BTC is bad 'cause it facilitates terrorism, etc." and my answer will always be "What do you think CASH is used for? If I remember good there was a study done which said that the ratio of cash used in illegal transactions vs btc is like 99% to 1%.

Bad actors will always find a way to sneak through. Our aim should be to eliminate that human behaviour, not the tools.

These kinds of news are often reported in the news of major media outlets which make people think that bitcoin is only used for illegal purposes and a dangerous thing. If terrorist financing was provided by the euro, would we stop using the euro?

I'm with the stance that it doesn't have anything to do with Bitcoin. It just so happens that the terrorist group used Bitcoin like any other currency. Its like saying that terrorism is everything to do with guns, when its not. There's perfectly valid reasons to own a gun, although I tend to side against guns in the majority of circumstances coming from the UK, and seeing the issues that they cause, but I acknowledge the right for those in America to own a gun, but just because terrorists use guns, doesn't mean its to do with guns, and the same for Bitcoin. There's probably a better comparison out there to be made, but I don't see why Bitcoin is pinpointed here, when the real news headline is that terrorism still exists in 2020.