thecoinrise.com
The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), focusing on roughly 200 alleged transactions, informed Indian investigating agencies about the role of three cryptocurrency exchanges in illegal drug trade transactions worth $3.5 billion.
According to an article in the Economic Times, these financial transactions are possible drug deals in the Cayman Islands, Nigeria, and the British Virgin Islands which were conducted through three Indian crypto management organizations. The Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are two of the major agencies among many other authorities who are looking into the situation.
The Economic Times wrote citing an anonymous senior government official: “Digital currency was used to buy and sell drugs and some of these companies facilitated it…So far the agency has been able to track transactions worth Rs 28,000 crore [$3.5 billion]”
According to media reports, the Hyderabad Narcotics Enforcement Wing’s arrested numerous drug traffickers, which led the department’s attention to these illegal transactions that took place between 2019 and 2022. They allegedly used to run a business on the Dark Web and accept cryptocurrency as payment.
During a meeting last week, home minister of India Amit Shah talked about drug trafficking and national security and said that there have been a rise in incidents related to drug smuggling through cryptocurrency and the dark web recently.
Serious probes by Indian law enforcement agencies
Indian law enforcement has been actively probing frauds and other criminal activities in the regional digital asset market over the past few months. The ED raided several locations linked to the suspect in a gaming app scam early in October this year. It froze cash and bitcoins retrieved from the site. The same agency has accused a number of entities for their involvement in laundering money to buy cryptocurrencies worth more than 100 million rupees.
The CEO and directors of Indian crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber were among the senior executives raided by the regulator in August for alleged violations of foreign exchange laws. According to earlier reports, the ED was also investigating 10 private companies for the possible laundering of $125 million.