Cryptocurrency laundering linked to drug trafficking: four people indicted in Paris (AFP / Ozan KOSE)
Four people have been indicted for a vast cryptocurrency laundering network linked to drug trafficking, between Dubai, France and the United States, AFP learned on Wednesday from a source close to the case and from the Paris prosecutor’s office.
In this investigation, three people were indicted on July 29, “two of French nationality and one of Ukrainian nationality”, specified the Paris prosecutor’s office and Junalco (National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organized Crime), requested by the ‘AFP.
The fourth indictment is a woman, born in 1986 in Russia and arrested on October 1, 2023 in Nice, when getting off a flight from Dubai. She was placed in pre-trial detention.
A fifth suspect, presented as the “main objective” of this case, was arrested in Dallas in the United States, on an arrest warrant from France, explained a source close to the case.
This case, opened in 2021, is “an illustration of the convergence of different criminal ecosystems, at the crossroads between drug trafficking, money laundering and cybercrime”, added the Paris prosecutor’s office and Junalco.
The facts, committed in France, Dubai and the United States, were revealed during the “investigation into Sky ECC encrypted messaging”, used by drug traffickers.
Messages, mentioning Paris, “highlighted a cash collection activity linked to drug trafficking, then laundered by the network, by several hundred thousand euros”, specified these sources.
In these messages, “the sum of 900,000 euros was mentioned for a single transfer” and “certain exchanges explicitly mentioned narcotics”, we added.
“The cash was obviously also collected in other countries, such as Spain, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Belgium and Italy” then compensated in cryptocurrency, detailed the prosecution and Junalco.
“These cryptocurrencies could then be converted via exchangers like Binance (for more than 55 million USDT, a cryptocurrency), in order to be transferred to traditional bank accounts.” On one of these wallets, called wallets, “more than 248 million USDT had passed through”.
The Russian-born woman is suspected of being “one of the contributors, for an amount estimated at tens of millions of USDT” and of having “contributed to the transit of loot from ransomware to the United States, to damage of more than a million dollars,” said the prosecution and Junalco, speaking of ransomware, malicious software.
During searches carried out in July in Nice and Marseille, “71,000 euros in cash” and “luxury products” were seized.
The investigation led by the Central Office for the Suppression of Serious Financial Crime (OCRGDF) was opened in particular for laundering drug imports by organized gangs, attacks on automated data processing systems and criminal conspiracy.
