- Indian Finance Minister Amit Shah warns of increased drug trafficking using crypto.
- Three digital asset management companies are under investigation.
- India’s FIU cracks down on 200 illicit crypto transactions worth $3.2 billion.
India’s Union Home Minister Amit Shah has raised concerns over the rise in drug smuggling through the dark web utilizing cryptocurrencies. The Minister made the comments on Wednesday during a regional summit on drug trafficking and national security held in India.
According to Shah, the unlawful money generated by the drug trade feeds terrorism. He emphasized that all federal and state authorities must work together to stop terrorist financing and keep young people safe.
He stated that the key drug smuggling challenges in India include the rise in heroin smuggling via maritime routes from the west coast, the unlawful production of drugs including opium, ganja, and poppy, the use of couriers and packages in drug smuggling, the prevalence of the dark web, and the rise in drug smuggling via cryptocurrency.
In the meantime, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in India has raised an alarm about the involvement of three digital asset management businesses in illegal drug transactions of Rs 28,000 crore (Approx $3.3 billion), prompting the Investigation Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax Department (I-T Dept) to investigate.
“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,” an official told local media outlet the Economic Times.
The FIU has zoomed down on over 200 transactions that occurred in Nigeria, the Cayman Islands, and the British Virgin Islands. According to the study, the transactions went through cryptocurrency exchanges in India. According to reports, the transactions occurred sometime between 2019 and 2021.
The news follows numerous drug traffickers detained by the Hyderabad Narcotics Enforcement Wing, the Indian state of Hyderabad’s drug enforcement agency, a few days earlier for allegedly doing business on the Dark Web using cryptocurrency.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently visited the United States and presented a compelling argument for worldwide regulation of cryptocurrencies to lower the risk of money laundering, drug trafficking, and terror funding.
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