- Michael Gubbins, head of Ireland’s Criminal Assets Bureau, said organised crime gangs are renting safe deposit boxes to store crypto private keys and seed phrases alongside cash, watches and passports.
- The bureau has identified about €360 million in cryptocurrency tied to crime, realised more than €130 million of it, and returned €15 million to the Irish exchequer last year.
- The disclosure lands as the EU prepares to cap cash payments at €10,000 and require identification above €3,000 from July 2027 under a new anti-money-laundering regime.
Irish crime gangs are renting safe deposit boxes to store the private keys and seed phrases that control their cryptocurrency, keeping the access codes offline and beyond the reach of investigators, the head of the state’s Criminal Assets Bureau said.
Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Gubbins, who runs the bureau, the state agency that targets the proceeds of crime, told the Sunday Independent that the practice surfaced in the agency’s own investigations and has been reported to the government’s Anti-Money Laundering Steering Committee.
Gangs lock hardware wallets and printed keys in private vaults next to cash, luxury watches and passports. The contents of one box “could be cryptocurrency keys or cash or watches or could even be passports”, Gubbins said.
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Keys, Cash and Passports
Criminals “believe there’s an anonymity attached to it”, Gubbins said, though he called their use of crypto “still quite basic”.
Cash remains the trade’s main currency. “It’s still a cash business for those engaged in drug trafficking”, he said. In one case, investigators recovered €230,000 (AU$370,638) in cash from a box at a private vault company.
The bureau has also encountered professional launderers for hire, including hawala operators who settle value across borders for a commission of about 6%.
The bureau has identified about €360 million (AU$580 million) in cryptocurrency linked to criminal activity and has realised more than €130 million (AU$209.5 million) of it, Gubbins said, returning €15 million (AU$24 million) to the Irish exchequer last year.
Its largest case dates to 2019, when it seized 6,000 Bitcoin from convicted cannabis grower Clifton Collins, who had split the holding across 12 wallets and printed the keys on a sheet of paper he later said he lost.
With Europol’s help, the bureau cracked the first of those wallets in March and has since recovered about 1,500 BTC. Large crypto seizures have become routine for European police, among them UK officers’ record £114 million (AU$214 million) haul.
Tighter Rules Coming
The disclosures come as Ireland prepares for stricter European Union anti-money-laundering rules.
From July 2027, the bloc will cap cash payments at €10,000 (AU$16,115) and require identification for transactions above €3,000 (AU$4,834), part of a package that also creates a new EU anti-money-laundering authority based in Frankfurt.
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