Overview
- Authorities say the scheme connected drug traffickers with sanctioned Russian oligarchs through a global cash-to-crypto pipeline.
- Investigators describe couriers collecting proceeds from crimes including narcotics, weapons deliveries and organized migration, which were then exchanged for digital assets.
- Under Operation Destabilise, partner agencies report 128 arrests across several countries.
- The NCA-linked report, cited by the Financial Times, says funds reached Russian defense and technology suppliers and financed a Bulgarian spy ring allegedly led by Jan Marsalek.
- In the UK, more than £25 million in cash and cryptocurrencies has been seized, and Austria’s interior ministry is reviewing whether to revoke Marsalek’s citizenship.