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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Technology
Rob Davies

Crypto-crimewave forces police online to pursue ill-gotten assets

Montage of images of police car, bitcoins and binary computer code.
UK police dealt with 22 types of cryptocurrency during investigations last year, up from two in 2019. Illustration: Observer Design

In July 2021, specialist police officers in Manchester swooped on an international cryptocurrency scam, seizing USB sticks and an online safe containing £16m worth of digital coins, mostly ethereum.

A month earlier, Leicestershire police had confiscated 10 types of cryptocurrency after raiding the home of a drug dealer who used digital assets to buy and sell class A drugs.

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