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Spanish Police Accuse Illegal Drug Vendor of Laundering $3.3M Haul in Crypto

The National Police of Spain said vendors’ “purchase of virtual currency stands out.” Police arrested 33 suspects across two parallel raids.

National Police of Spain

Spain’s National Police on Sunday arrested 33 people who allegedly sold illegal medications online and laundered at least part of their €3 million ($3.37 million) profit in virtual currency.

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  • The busts, conducted against two separate organizations, resulted in the seizure of over 70,000 erectile dysfunction tablets and other drugs that Spain’s health regulators have not approved.
  • Police claim one of the organizations’ vendors moved the drugs from a factory in India through Singapore and the United Kingdom before importing them to a Murica garage for distribution.
  • In documenting the suspects’ attempts to cover their digital tracks, police said the “purchase of virtual currency stands out.”
  • The Murica organization netted vendors at least 3 million euros, authorities said. They alleged the criminals laundered some of those funds through virtual currency, but did not disclose which cryptocurrency.

Danny Nelson

Danny is CoinDesk's managing editor for Data & Tokens. He formerly ran investigations for the Tufts Daily. At CoinDesk, his beats include (but are not limited to): federal policy, regulation, securities law, exchanges, the Solana ecosystem, smart money doing dumb things, dumb money doing smart things and tungsten cubes. He owns BTC, ETH and SOL tokens, as well as the LinksDAO NFT.

Danny Nelson