The terror financing ring reportedly bought cryptocurrency coupons in licensed tobacco shops across France.
A large goup of accomplaces allegedly financing a jihadist network in Syria have been arrested after a sting operation by French police — despite choosing cryptocurrency coupons in an attempt to cover their tracks.
In a statement, police said that "constant surveillance of these networks prompted terrorist organisations to seek more opacity by using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin," as reported on Sept. 30.
Since 2019, the 29 accomplices have allegedly been supporting the operations of an Al-Qaeda affiliate terror organization, called “Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham.”
The network’s architects are reportedly two French jihadists in their mid-20s, who are both thought to be in northeastern Syria at present. Both were sentenced to 10 years in prison in absentia in 2016.
The 29 members of the network were busted after being caught purchasing cryptocurrency coupons worth between 10 and 150 euros each ($12–$176) on multiple occasions in recent months from tobacco outlets across France.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/french-police-arrest-terror-financing-ring-that-used-bitcoin-couponsI'm not sure I have ever heard of cryptocurrency coupons... I wonder why they opted for them when usually people just use cryptos. It's a shame that these coupons were introduced in France to attract people to the crypto sphere, but terrorists are those who got interested. I wonder what's the share of people who genuinely got interested to people who exploited this system for illegal purposes. I'm glad they were caught because financing terrorism is plundering Bitcoin's reputation. That being said, I do agree with bitmover that fiat is also used for illegal activities, and I've argued elsewhere (but I can't find the post right now) that it's used more actively than cryptos.