Australian Federal Police Loot Cryptocurrency, Homes, Luxury Goods from Gangsters
The Australian Federal Police has executed a series of initiatives designed to decentralize organized crime syndicates away from ill-gotten goods, confiscating cryptocurrency hoards, designer goods, luxury cars, and homes in a new policing effort.
The latest AFP campaign against criminal syndicates has seen Federal Officers confiscate designer handbags and other luxury assets from the wives and girlfriends of criminals, along with significant cryptocurrency holdings.
In statements released to Australian news media, AFP Criminal Assets Confiscation national manager Stefan Jerga announced that the AFP is actively targeting all forms of currency possessed by criminals, along with goods, vehicles, and real estate.
“We come after all their assets. Whether it be the roof over their heads, their modes of transport and recreational toys, moneys in their possession or bank accounts, or the watches, bags and shoes they parade, we target it all,”
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Elaborating on the focus of the confiscation program, Jerga specified that the efforts of the AFP are designed to disrupt organized criminal activity, causing maximum damage to the criminal environment.
AFP Captures Hundreds of Millions in Criminal Assets
To date, the AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce has confiscated and restrained over $250 million in criminal assets both in Australia and abroad. Confiscated assets include real estate, luxury vehicles and watercraft, high end jewellery such as diamond-encrusted luxury watches, and cryptocurrency.
Seized cryptocurrency amounts to a significant store of capital for the Australian Federal Police.
In January 2018, for example, members of the Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce and Criminal Assets Litigation teams in Brisbane successfully restrained the Bitcoin of a suspect under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (Cth) — seizing the cryptocurrency assets of an arrested individual that were, at the time, worth $7300.
By November, 2018, the individual in possession of the Bitcoin agreed to forfeit the Bitcoin holdings. The interim price rise in the value of the asset saw the cryptocurrency hoard increase in value to approximately $154,000.
More recently, a December 2019 drug bust led Australian Federal Police Officers to a record cryptocurrency seizure, with police forces capturing “millions of dollars” worth of physical property and over $1.5 million dollars worth of cryptocurrency.