According to statements by the Spanish law enforcement, Bitcoin ATMs are largely overlooked in the European Union’s anti-money laundering laws, simply because they’re recorded evidence about criminals transferring as much as $10 million using Bitcoin ATMs out of the country within 2019 alone.
According to the statement, the funds transferred were acquired through drug trafficking between member states.
According to a Bloomberg report, the authorities allege that several individuals have employed the services of local exchanges in order to purchase and install the hardware in their office and make daily payments under the maximum transferable amount which requires an ID check and report to the tax authorities.
The law enforcement claims that the office used was posing as a cryptocurrency exchange, depositing funds on already existing platforms in order to acquire cryptocurrencies and then top up the Bitcoin ATMs, after which the funds were distributed between dozens of drug traffickers across the country and the Union as well.
An investigation is currently underway, but the authorities have already managed to seize as many as two ATMs, four cold wallets and twenty hot wallets which were allegedly used for making such payments.
It’s likely that more evidence will surface as investigations continue. Should the local exchanges comply with law enforcement demands, they’re sure to find the alleged perpetrators soon enough.
