British police confiscated Bitcoin worth £ 300 million in criminal crypto wallets

• cryptocurrencies that were confiscated by the entire British police only contribute to Bitcoin an incredible 99 percent of the total amount.
• The British police are working on building a technologically advanced infrastructure to deal with criminals that use crypto assets.

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The police in the entire United Kingdom have confiscated Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from criminal cryptocurrency wallets. The recent criminal investigations have led the British police to confiscate almost £ 300 million in Bitcoin.

According to the request for freedom of information (FOI), 12 of the 48 British police forces in Great Britain confiscated this digital asset in the past five years. Bitcoin alone makes up an incredible 99 percent of the confiscated cryptocurrency in Great Britain. The remaining 1 percent includes other old coins such as Ethereum, Dash, Monero and Zcash.

According to the report, the true amount of the confiscated amounts could be even higher, since not all of the 15 British police forces reacted to the request. In conversation with a local news publication city on It could be illegal funds that are used in Great Britain. In addition, the police are confronted with considerable technological and legal hurdles in crimes.

related : British crypto investors lost $ 200 million by crypto fraud

between January and September 2021

Joseph Harrop, the Detective Chief Inspector of Economic Crime Unit at the Greater Manchester Police, said that the introduction of crypto through criminals was unexpectedly quickly. Therefore, the law enforcement authorities have to acquire new skills in order to deal with such cases and confiscate funds.

As a result, the British police have hired civilian staff with technical know-how in dealing with digital assets and trained for working with detectives.

Legal hurdles when confiscating illegal cryptos

The British police said it was not easy to confiscate cryptocurrency wallets. According to the British law on crime proceeds from 2002, the police can confiscate cash if they find that it is connected to criminal activities. However, the powers to confiscate real assets such as cryptocurrencies are closer.

Another major technological problem is that digital currencies have extremely strong encryption. Despite the confiscation of the crypto wallet, the police cannot receive any simple access to funds because it has no encryption key. Harrop said:

When we restore laptops or USB sticks, you may have an encryption level, and yes, there are difficulties to get in. So it may sound, sometimes people leave golden nuggets or strong evidence where they literally have what we need, written on a piece of paper.

Jake Moore, former head of the Dorset police, said that digital investigations are still in its infancy. He added that they will need far more resources to combat this growing crypto crypto crime. He concluded with the words:

cybercriminals are very aware of the well -documented bypass tactics, but the police improve at a pace that will slowly catch up over time. The use of better monitoring techniques in known suspects, increasing the intelligence information and improving the profil creation of the presumably involved person helps to gain greater evidence of the recovery and seizure of funds. In many cases, however, the costs for this could possibly exceed the achievable amount.