$5.2 Million in Cryptocurrency Seized in EU’s Largest LSD Raid

European law enforcement agencies dismantled a Darknet drug trafficking network, seizing almost 800,000 doses of LSD and over $5 million in Bitcoin, IOTA, and Lumens. Ulbricht, better known by his deep web pseudonym, “Dread Pirate Roberts,” was charged with narcotics trafficking, computer hacking, and money laundering after his arrest at the Glen Park Branch Library in San Francisco on October 1, 2013. The FBI seized 144,336 Bitcoins during the Silk Road bust, which they auctioned for a meager $48 million.

Headlines about the Darknet dissipated shortly after the investigation, leaving people to assume that Darknet operations had either vanished entirely or become much smaller than they were during the Silk Road’s heyday. On June 28, however, a very similar story made headlines across Europe as the Spanish Guardia Civil and the Austrian Federal Police, supported by Europol,seized more than $5 million in cryptocurrencies from yet another deep web drug ring. According to an article from the EU Reporter, over 100 different types of psychoactive drugs, including nearly 800,000 doses of LSD, were seized from two different laboratories in Granada and Valencia, Spain.

Eight individuals were arrestedon accusations of arranging a criminal organization for drug trafficking and money laundering. The organized crime group was shipping drugs out of Spain to at least 100 countries since 2012, disguising the drugs as legal products such as cement additives.

Source: bitcoinist.com