The story reminds me of the hacker, Jimmy Zhong, who stole 51680 BTC from Silk Road. After using a mixer to mix the stolen coins whenever he wanted to move them, at one point, he mistakenly sent some portion to a centralised exchange where he had KYC'ed, and that was how he was identified. I'm guessing the police officer's case is almost the same. He must have linked his identity to the address before or after using a mixer.
It is getting more interesting that these who embezzle money through bitcoin are traced and found. Bitcoin has been labelled the criminals den and where criminals come to other malicious act and get away with it easily. Stories like this makes it even more possible for criminals who have stolen bitcoin to be traced and fined. I still imagine how people get away with fiat which is more centralised.
I am beginning to have this feeling that these people (government) just want to let go off those that steal money and claim they cannot be traced whereas bitcoin whose transaction is public wouldn’t make them to hide it and say criminals can’t be traced when they have some informations at hand that can make them to be traced. Maybe ditching the fiat and embracing bitcoin is what we should advocate for, since criminals can be traced when they steal bitcoin but cannot be traced when they steal fiat, hopefully that would make the nation clear off more criminals than before.