[2018-04-11] Spanish Authorities Arrest 11 In Crypto Money Laundering Ring

[limek]

Operation Tulipan Blanca (White Tulip), coordinated by Europol and conducted by the Spanish Guardia Civil, has resulted in the arrest of 11 individuals for laundering more than EUR 8 mln via cryptocurrencies, according to a Europol press release April 9.

According to Europol, the investigation was centered around a crime ring which launders money from narcotics sales using credit cards and cryptocurrencies.

Launderers would pick up the illicit funds in cash, after which they would deposit them in small amounts into hundreds of third bank accounts. Since the cash was already circulating in the financial system, the ring just needed to transfer the illicit funds back to the drug dealers in Colombia. The criminals would then acquire credit cards linked with the accounts, and travel to Colombia where they would make withdrawals.

Read more: https://cointelegraph.com/news/spanish-authorities-arrest-11-in-crypto-money-laundering-ring

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[FrueGreads]

Well I would say these are good news to the crypto space. We see criminals that already were laundering money with normal fiat system, and then they switched to bitcoin and got caught. So I guess it's not that easy to use bitcoin for criminal activities. It would be nice if the article said how much money they has successfully laundered when they were just using banks.

[CryptoBry]

We should be eliminating these guys from doing more harm to cryptocurrency. Many people are now assuming that cryptocurrency can be scam since it is being used illegally in many ways. We could not fault people thinking negative on cryptocurrency because it is still new and any association with bad elements can be branding it. We should tell people that cryptocurrency is just like the fiat money which can be used legally or illegally.