Indian investigating agencies including Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department are probing three crypto exchanges for their role in illegal drug-trade transactions. The country’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has identified nearly 200 transactions together worth $3.5-billion at the current price that was routed through the three suspect crypto exchanges.
These transactions are suspected to have funded the illegal trade of drugs and were carried out in Nigeria, the British Virgin Islands, and the Cayman Islands between 2019 and 2021, the Economic Times reported.
FIU is a national-level agency that receives all reports of suspicious financial transactions having money laundering and terror financing angel. It also extensively cooperates with international investigations in these areas.
“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,” a senior government official said.
The lead in the case came from the arrests of several drug traffickers by Hyderabad Narcotics Enforcement Wing. These traffickers were using the dark net and cryptocurrencies to run their illegal drug trafficking business.
At a recent meeting, India’s Home Minister Amit Shah revealed that the use of the dark net and cryptocurrencies in the illegal trade of drugs has increased significantly in recent years.
Also, law enforcement agencies such as ED have intensified crackdowns on crypto firms in their bid to contain illegal financial activities, mainly violations of money laundering and foreign exchange rules.
