It's not new as long as there's money involved it can be used in any types of activities, there are a lot of news that spreads some of them were true and some are not in which they use Bitcoin to be the mode of payment in every transaction they made. Some of the syndicates or criminals took advantage of the anonymity as they can effectively transact with other groups without sacrificing their identities plus since the market is decentralized it is hard for the Government to track them down. Much worst some of the officials engaged in such activities (Conspiracy Theory).