Ireland’s Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) has accessed a cryptocurrency wallet containing 500 Bitcoin, valued at approximately $34 million, which was seized from convicted drug dealer Clifton Collins. This marks the first successful breach of twelve wallets confiscated in 2019, whose total holdings have grown to around $418 million. Europol provided technical expertise to crack the wallet after Collins claimed the seed phrases were lost in a break-in.
Ireland’s Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) has gained access to a Bitcoin wallet containing approximately 500 BTC, worth about $34 million. This wallet is among twelve seized in 2019 from convicted cannabis cultivator Clifton Collins, whose total cryptocurrency holdings have since ballooned to a value of $418 million.
The breakthrough was achieved through an operation supported by Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre, which provided “highly complex technical expertise and decryption resources vital to the success of the operation,” according to a Garda statement. The accessed 500 BTC were confirmed as “the proceeds of crime.”
Collins, a 55-year-old former beekeeper, was jailed for five years after growing cannabis in rented houses. He invested proceeds from his drug business into Bitcoin starting in 2011. He created twelve wallets to store his fortune and recorded the private keys in a document hidden in a fishing rod case, which he claimed was lost after a break-in.
The original seizure in 2019 was valued at $61 million. In its 2023 annual report, the CAB noted that some $1.3 million was recovered from Collins after assets including 89 BTC were confiscated, along with various other items.
