The Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE) of Gujarat CID Crime has apprehended nine individuals involved in an international cryptocurrency syndicate. This syndicate is suspected of engaging in terror financing, dark web narcotics trafficking, cyber fraud, hawala transactions, and money laundering. The financial transactions linked to these illegal activities amount to over Rs 226 crore.
During a press conference, SP Rajdeepsinh Zala disclosed that the investigation exposed a network dealing with “dirty crypto” associated with international terror groups, dark web markets, drug rings, gold smuggling, human trafficking, and other illicit operations. The accused allegedly converted the “dirty crypto” into USDT and then into cash through hawala channels, funneling the funds to various criminal entities across different countries.
The investigation was initiated after the CCoE’s technical unit flagged a suspicious Indian IP address in cryptocurrency transactions. Further analysis revealed that this IP address was receiving payments from “ARTEMISLAB.CC,” a dark web platform involved in global online drug trafficking. Subsequent blockchain scrutiny led to a crypto wallet owned by Ahmedabad resident Mohsin Sadiq Molani, which in turn led to the identification of nine interconnected crypto wallets within the same network.
