Irish authorities have unlocked a seized Bitcoin (BTC) wallet linked to a large-scale drug case. The wallet, containing 500 BTC, had been inaccessible for seven years due to missing private keys, and opens the door to recovering a massive BTC stash from other seized wallets.
Irish Police Unlocks Seized Bitcoin WalletIn a statement, the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), in collaboration with Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre, confirmed the seizure of approximately €30 million in crypto, worth around $35.4 million at current prices.
“Europol hosted operational meetings at its headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands and provided critical support to Bureau investigators and analysts with the provision of highly complex technical expertise and decryption resources vital to the success of the operation,” authorities explained.
The platform also links 13 other addresses to Collins, with total holdings of roughly 5,500 Bitcoin, worth $392.3 million at the time of writing.
Missing Keys Lock 5,500 BTC AwayThe Bitcoin was originally confiscated from a 53-year-old former beekeeper from Dublin, Clifton Collins, who was involved in a “large-scale” cannabis operation nine years ago. Collins began cultivating cannabis full-time around 2005, renting properties around Ireland to grow crops and sell them in Dublin.
During Bitcoin’s early years, Collins invested in BTC around 2011 and 2022, when it was worth only a fraction of its current value. As the flagship cryptocurrency surged in popularity and price, he decided to disperse his growing wealth across multiple virtual wallets, creating 12 wallets that were later seized by the police.
In any case, the loss of the sole copy of the private keys left the CAB with a digital fortune that remained inaccessible until now. The breakthrough could signal that a recovery of the 5,500 Bitcoin sitting in the other wallets is possible.
It’s worth noting that authorities had already forfeited assets worth $1.39 million, including $1.15 million in Bitcoin, to which Collins still had access codes.
