Feds Ran a Bitcoin-Laundering Sting For Over a Year (theverge.com) 97
More than 40 alleged dark-web drug dealers have been arrested as part of a sweeping federal effort by the Department of Justice as "the first national undercover operation targeting dark net vendors." The Verge reports: The core of the operation was an online money-laundering business seized by agents from Homeland Security Investigations and operated as a sting for over a year. By offering cash for bitcoin, HSI agents were able to identify specific drug dealers, ultimately tracing more than $20 million in drug-linked cryptocurrency transactions. The hijacked money-laundering service was offered across a number of different marketplaces, with agents claiming at least some presence on AlphaBay, Dream Market, Wall Street, and others.
So far, prosecutions have been launched across 19 states as a result of the operation, seizing more than $3.6 million in cash. The same raids seized large quantities of Schedule IV pharmaceuticals -- including 100,000 tramadol pills and over 24 kilograms of Xanax -- as is typical of trade on dark net markets. Agents also recovered more than 300 models of liquid synthetic opioids and roughly 100 grams of fentanyl. Further investigations are still ongoing.
So far, prosecutions have been launched across 19 states as a result of the operation, seizing more than $3.6 million in cash. The same raids seized large quantities of Schedule IV pharmaceuticals -- including 100,000 tramadol pills and over 24 kilograms of Xanax -- as is typical of trade on dark net markets. Agents also recovered more than 300 models of liquid synthetic opioids and roughly 100 grams of fentanyl. Further investigations are still ongoing.
The Bitcoin hype has dried up already! (Score:1)
It's astounding how quickly the Bitcoin hype has disappeared. Last December it was all that we were hearing about. Then the value collapsed earlier this year, and now we hear almost nothing. It has gone back to being a niche novelty. Given how badly so many foolish people were burned by its most recent decline in value, it's more and more unlikely that a new and sufficiently large batch of fools will be found any time soon to allow for another overhauling of Bitcoin. To really put it in perspective, even No
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What was the trouble? They were for sale on CBOE.
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the libertarian anarchistic philosophy
Libertarianism and Anarchism are two quite different things. Conflating them is just a way to make the reactionary ideas behind Libertarianism sound hip.
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You could have simply purchased futures.
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Yeah that's it. You could buy a large house with your millions in bitcoin but you choose to live in your parents basement. Sure.
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Smart rich people don't sink money into Ferraris.
If you're actually rich, then the difference in price of a few hundred thousand dollars between a Ferrari and a Fiat Panda is irrelevant.
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If people would stop using Bitcoin as an imaginary digital investment, it would actually make a decent medium of exchange now that mechanisms for securely faster transactions are being developed. A mature cryptocurrency would be one whose value didn't keep fluctuating wildly week by week.
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"A mature cryptocurrency would be one whose value didn't keep fluctuating wildly week by week."
But then, how a constant-rate/constant volume currency can cope with demand fluctuations?
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Yes, even a non-speculative cryptocurrency would be subject to the money supply problem, which is that the amount of any mined-out currency (cost of generating any more is ludicrously high in energy cost, like BTC) stays constant, while the sum of all the things it can be traded for keeps growing. This causes a steady fall in the amount of coin it takes to buy goods, which makes buying and holding the currency itself an irresistible deal. So although a stable crypto could be a viable medium of exchange in t
War on drugs is useless (Score:1, Troll)
All it does is put hard working people in jail.
Time to put Wall Street in jail.
The war on drugs was declared (Score:1)
because Nixon couldn't declare war on hippies.
After getting marijuana legalized we really need to decriminalize possession of other drugs (possession is "punished" by treatment, only dealers face jail), and start looking into what else could be safely legalized.
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Decriminalization isn't even a half-step, i
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The stock market is a great way to earn a lot of money. Invest in an S&P 500 tracking fund, leave it there for MANY MANY years, and you'll likely have much more in the end.
Anyone who isn't investing in the stock market is missing out.
Re: War on drugs is useless (Score:2)
I was referring to the manipulaters and scam artists who have taken over Wall Street.
You're right. Invest in an index fund and ignore the manipulaters.
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While that is historically true, particularly since end of WWII...
The real estate banking WQ game since 2008, and the change in world dynamics, has changed the game.
The US is no longer an assured thing.
S&P is primarily US based.
It will rise or tank with the US.
Only global agnostic funds will prevail now.
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The move from cryptocurrency back to cash. The where and when. With a hidden FBI camera on a pole over looking the digital "transactions".
Was wondering when this was going to happen (Score:5, Insightful)
Legalize Marijuana and I suspect you'll see the bottom fall out of Crypto currencies. Heck, legalize all drugs and treat the hard ones (cocaine & heroine) like the medical conditions that they are and that's basically that.
I can't say I'd be sad to see them go. It's a tremendous waste of electricity for not much in return. You're not going to get freedom from Government & Corporation backed fiat currencies out of it. If it ever came to that they'd just move in and take over. Heck, by all accounts Bitcoin's price has been manipulated by a bunch of folks out of China for the last year or two. Meanwhile it's nice to see GPU prices slowly coming back to Earth.
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The FBI waits at the payment and product end.
The DEA follows all the product.
The IRS is ready for any strange cash/banking movements.
The question is then who told everyone to "trust" computers and a payment method the NSA/FBI could track in real time?
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Actually based on some charts, news announcements and government policy (in China) I suspect a good portion of it, was used to funnel money out in to the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand property markets.
China has continued to crack down on the currency, to a point it's difficult to hide laundering money into a 4 bedroom AAA quality property in downtown Vancouver. This has impacted housing in Vancouver (as well as the recent tax policies in that location) as well as the price of bitcoin.
I will say, I
Re:Was wondering when this was going to happen (Score:5, Interesting)
Crypto currencies base value is almost entirely on drugs, money laundering and ransomware payments.
Errr no, not even remotely. Crypto currencies' base value is almost entirely speculation, financial fuckery, and idiots investing in dodgy exchanges.
The only thing real that cryptocurrencies are pegged against is ransomware which don't change depending on the bitcoin / dollar value. Drugs and money laundering on the other hand are pegged against the dollar and the bitcoin transactions make up a small amount of that so they have borderline no influence at all. If drugs and money laundering were the basis for bitcoin the price would be far more stable.
You can see that clearly when bitcoin's price barely blips when a major drug site gets taken down, but spikes wildly when some idiot on wallstreet opens their mouth. Now we also have futures to speculate with further removing the value of some cryptocurrencies from anything tangible.
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and most of the transactions for bitcoin really were related to drugs
No. Most transactions for bitcoin where trading bitcoin for dollars. This happened many orders of magnitudes more than all other combined products including drugs. And while drugs did and still does make up a large portion of product related bitcoin purchases, the cost of the drugs is pegged against the dollar and floats against the bitcoin. They do NOT peg the the bitcoin to anything tangible, and the drug dealers would be incredibly stupid to do so.
It was pushing $5k before the speculators got in (Score:2)
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and it's only around $6k now. Yeah, some of that value is speculators, but nowhere near all of it.
Don't be silly. People have been speculating against bitcoin since you could get it for a dollar. Just because the crazy stupid price spike in the past year was entirely wallstreet doesn't change the fact that bitcoin's value is not pegged against any product and that trading from and to currencies is and always has been several orders of magnitude higher than any movement between accounts or in exchange for products.
They hate bitcoin (Score:2)
WTF Tramadol? (Score:1)
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I wonder if you can cut some other drug with it. Either that or junkies have figured out some way to make it fun.
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It's an addictive opioid that can cause hallucinations.
Active pharmaceutical component (Score:5, Informative)
Tramadol is like Ibuprofen++. {...} and used by people that are in actual pain
The only thing in common between tramadol and ibuprofen is that they both releive pain and that's about it.
Ibuporofen is a type of non-steroid anti inflammation drug (NSAID). Basically it's "aspirin++" with its own set of set-backs and advantages (it's hard on the stomach. Can also affect the kidneys)
Tramadol is an opioid, it work on the same pain receptors as morphine and heroin, and has a different set of drawbacks that it share with these substance (risk of addiction. Causes often constipation and can cause urinary globe).
- Because it's addictive, it's much more difficult to obtain a prescription. Some people in actual pain might resort to illegal channel to obtain what they need (whil avoiding a high doctor fee, eg.)
- Because it's addictive, if it's not managed correctly, it can lead to addiction, and some people need to constantly get doses to avoid pain (either the people who got it from above, or people who didn't manage it correctly while prescribed by a doctor). They'll use illegal channel to keep fueling their addiction.
- It's an opioid. Somebody is bound to find some dubious way to use it recreatively. They'll also use illegal channels to obtain it.
The same kind of thinking can be also applied to the other drugs. Xanax contains alprazolam, a type of benzodiazepine - a class of drugs that is used as tranquilizers (against stress, to help sleep, etc.) which is also highly addictive.
Overall, these aren't illegal drugs. They are perfectly normal pharmaceutical component, only very strictly regulated ones.
To me, it looks like a sizeable chunk of the illegal drug market that US gov agencies are fighting isn't only druggies that want to get high (LSD, shrooms, etc.) but also people with medical condition that weren't managed properly and slowly devolved into an addiction.
If the other side of the Atlantic pond didn't have such a joke of a healthcare and social welfare system, maybe lots of these addict would have been able to afford going to the doctor, would have had better managed problem and wouldn't be resorting to illegal channel and fueling the drug market.
Yes, I know, we "evil-euro-communist"...
Re:Active pharmaceutical component (Score:4, Insightful)
I was all ready to mark your comment insightful until the end when you claim socialized medicine somehow prevents opiod addiction from prescription meds.
Here's a recent BBC article claiming the exact opposite, that the NHS is creating drug addicts.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-en... [bbc.com]
So go ahead, pretend this is an American only issue.
No magic pixie dust (Score:3)
you claim socialized medicine somehow prevents opiod addiction from prescription meds.
So go ahead, pretend this is an American only issue.
I think you might have missed the conditionals I've been using :
Noticed ?
I don't claim that socialized medicine is magic wand that you can wave away prescription meds addiction.
I claim that is possible that maybe, by making medicine more affordable, some potential addicts will get their problem better treated, and this
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I have close family in the medical field so I'm pretty well aware of the situation over here and the main reason why we have much less opioid addiction is that we just don't give them out like doctors do in the U.S. One very important factor when a doctor d
FBI caused the Bitcoin surge (Score:2)
I guess the rise in the bitcoin price in December was the US Govt buying Bitcoin for cash
Ohhh, that sounds like Rassah's alley! (Score:2)
Please tell me one of the bigger 'bitcon' evangelists got caught up in this. Rassah is nothing but libertarian scum.
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In case anyone else didn't know who Rassah is (emphasis is mine)...
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Sorry, forgot the linky [forbes.com].
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"We'd like to give all this money away"
"We cannot find enough charities"
Yup, because nobody's touching that illicit faker-than-fiat money.
This guy drives around in a Prius with the license plate BITCOIN, if you ever wanted to know. Easy enough to spot. See it, you know to avoid the whole area, because where he lies, plenty of other fraudsters are most likely gathered as well.
Oblig. SHUM (Score:2)
SHUM [imgur.com]
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What's the ROI from a taxpayer's perspective? (Score:2)