A very strange story about crypto comes to light from Australia. A police officer is accused of stealing Bitcoin (BTC) during a drug raid.
According to the allegations, the agent in question stole more than 80 BTC during the operation.
Bitcoin stolen in police raid, IP address on wallet linked to officer
The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), Australia’s internal investigative agency, is accusing an officer of stealing 81,616 BTC directly from the crime scene during a police raid. This was reported by an Australian news channel on February 16th.
Australian police have found a Trezor hardware wallet in a drug raid. However, police had to wait three weeks for the judge’s permission before they could open the digital wallet.
However, it turned out that the wallet had already been emptied. Initially, it was assumed that one of the members of the criminal organization was behind the Bitcoin theft.
After extensive research with Tracing softwareor tracking software, an IP address was found that was used to access the Bitcoins.
The IP address was then linked to one William Wheatley, an agent with the Australian Cybercrime Division.
Wheatley is accused by the Internal Investigations Department of stealing the Bitcoin shortly after the police raid.
“I couldn’t think of any good business reason why an IP address associated with the Australian Police would appear.
“I concluded that a police officer may have been involved in the cryptocurrency movement,” said Detective Deon Achtypis.
Police officer accused of stealing $4 million worth of Bitcoins
The police raid took place in January 2019 as part of a large-scale investigation into drug trafficking through the mail. In addition to a Trezor wallet, a large amount of steroids was also found.
In January 2019, the 81.62 Bitcoins were worth around $309,000 (€286,700). Today, more than five years later, these Bitcoins are worth a whopping $4.16 million (€3.86 million).
Wheatley says he’s innocent. In an initial hearing on Friday, he indicated that he wanted to defend himself against the allegations.
There are still many people who think that Bitcoin transactions are hidden. However, Bitcoin’s blockchain is public and anyone can view all transactions.
This often makes it easier for government agencies to use investigative software to find out who is behind a transaction.