The Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) in Ireland has possession of €350 million in confiscated cryptocurrency, specifically Bitcoin, yet it is unable to unlock the accounts. The seized amount is stored in twelve encrypted digital wallets that have been inaccessible since being taken from its owner, a drug trafficker, over five years ago.
The virtual currency was originally discovered by the Irish police, the Garda, during an investigation into Clifton Collins, a 53-year-old ex-beekeeper and notorious drug dealer. Seized in 2019, the cryptocurrency was valued at €53 million at the time. Since then, its worth has jumped to €345 million, while the bureau waits hopefully for technological progression to unseal the asset.
Operating from his hometown of Crumlin, Collins cultivated cannabis in leased homes before marketing the harvested drugs to fellow criminals. He used the profits of the drug business to invest in Bitcoin in 2011 and 2012, where the digital currency was far less valuable than it currently stands. As the value of Bitcoin surged, Collins took the cautious route by distributing his flourishing wealth amongst various virtual wallets. He maintained a record of the cryptographic keys required to access the wallets in a document, stored inside a fishing rod case on one of his leased properties in County Galway.
However, after a burglary occurred at his home, Collins lost track of the case. It is also speculated that the document may have been discarded during the cleaning out of the property following his capture. This case highlights the mounting instances worldwide of individuals losing access to their digital wealth due to misplaced wallet keys.
In 2017, Collins unexpectedly landed in the net of law enforcement after years of successfully evading justice for his illicit drug dealings. During a routine patrol, officers stumbled upon a vehicle parked on Military Road, near Sally Gap in Co Wicklow, in the early morning hours. Inside the vehicle, driven by Collins, they discovered Cannabis herb worth €2,000.
Their further course of inquiry led them to uncover that Collins was using three rental houses – based in Galway, Meath and Longford – as hotbeds for growing cannabis. In his Galway residence, officers uncovered a stash of cannabis valued at a staggering €400,000, an offence for which Collins later received a five-year custodial sentence.
In the latter part of 2020, Collins handed over assets amounting to €1.2 million, which were proven to be ill-gotten gains. Among the surrendered assets were bitcoin worth €1 million, for which Collins possessed the crucial key codes. Additionally, he handed over a two-seater Gyro aircraft, a recreational motorhome, and a fishing boat to the government.
On Tuesday, the Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, unveiled the 2023 annual report from Cab. The report publicised that an impressive sum of €8.6 million had been reclaimed by Cab, in multiple cases, during 2023. This marked the biggest amount retrieved in the past 15 years.