Drug dealers create their own cryptocurrency to launder dirty money

Daily Mail​

23-04-2025

A criminal gang involved in the drug trade has created its own cryptocurrency to launder dirty money in what may be the first known case of its kind.
Organized crime syndicates have long exploited the relative anonymity of mainstream cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum to hide the origin of illicit funds.
But the move by a UK street gang to develop and launch its own digital coin takes things 'one step further', according to drug crime expert Gary Carroll of Claymore Advisory Group.
The plot, which is currently active, bears a passing resemblance to OneCoin - a fake cryptocurrency launched in Germany that turned out to be a giant Ponzi scheme.
However, this is thought to be the first time experts have observed the launch of a genuine digital coin by a street gang.
Mr Carroll, who spent 14 years in policing before becoming an expert witness, learned of the scheme through sources but was unable to name the coin or the gang to protect their identity.
He described it as a 'meme coin', which refers to a cryptocurrency that is designed to go viral on social media and rapidly rise in price.
He said the gang hoped to wait for the coin to become more valuable before suddenly selling out as part of a 'pump and dump' strategy.
'Criminals have been using crypto to launder money for at least 15 years now,' he told DailyMail.com.
'But developing a meme coin is one step further than simply buying cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum and suggests the process is becoming easier.
'They are using illicit money to pay developers to create a legitimate coin and then launch it onto the market. They are hoping to get the coin onto popular wallets and for the public to fall on it and turn it into the next Dogecoin.
'This is essentially a pyramid scheme and relies on multi-level marketing and loads of people buying in.
'Even if the coin only rises by a small amount they could still make a lot of money before selling out.
'The those profits will appear to be from crypto entrepreneurship rather than drugs.'
Mr Carroll described the gang behind the coin as 'mid-level' operators who make money through extortion, fraud, drug supply, and the sale of counterfeit goods and cigarettes.
'They are based in England but they've got connections to other countries,' he said.
'They're not a household name - but they've got enough to throw in a few hundred grand and get the coin off the ground.
'There are lots of meme coins out there that do absolutely nothing but have huge uptakes, so the potential rewards are astronomical.'
Mr Carroll has completed more than 1,000 expert reports over nine years and given evidence to multiple court cases, giving him a deep understanding of the rapidly evolving nature of international drug crime.
He believes the relative ease of creating meme coins suggested it could become a popular method for gangs looking to launder money and turn a quick profit.
'It's just one step further than urban street gangs investing in crypto - why invest in the coin when they can just start one themselves?
'In one or maybe two years time there will be cases in court, I'm confident about that.
'Criminals, especially drug dealers, aren't known for their patience. So they are wanting to do something that makes money as quickly as possible.
'My own opinion is this will become more common. It's a way to semi-legitimize their trade.'
OneCoin remains the largest crypto-related scam to date. It was launched in 2014 by German-Bulgarian businesswoman Dr Ruja Ignatova, who described it as 'the Bitcoin killer' while addressing an adoring crowd at Wembley Arena.
Between August 2014 and March 2017, more than $4.5billion was invested by devotees in dozens of countries before Dr Ruja suddenly disappeared in October 2017.
It later emerged OneCoin was not a real cryptocurrency at all but a pyramid scheme hosted on its parent company's servers.
The FBI is now offering a $5m bounty to help track down Dr Ruja, despite rumors she has been murdered at the orders of a Bulgarian mafia boss.
Mainstream cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are regularly used by criminals to launder cash or move large sums across borders without having to resort to traditional banking methods.
This is often done through highly organized networks that operate across multiple countries and have a wide variety of different criminal clients.
One system recently exposed by police was run by Russian-speaking hackers and consisted of two networks called Smart and TGR.
Smart was run by Ekaterina Zhdanova, a glamorous businessman who regularly graced the covers of business magazines during her earlier career in financial services.
She is currently in custody in France, while the whereabouts of the boss of TGR, Russian businessman Georgy Rossi, are unknown.
Police say Smart and TGR used their global reach to launder money for crime groups including the Kinahans, as well as street drugs gangs operating in several different countries.
They also helped Russian clients bypass financial restrictions to invest money in the UK and the Kremlin pay spies overseas, according to the National Crime Agency.