U.S. authorities seek to forfeit more than $54 million in cryptocurrency from drug traffickers

The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a civil forfeiture иск о конфискации cryptocurrency worth more than $54 million that had been seized in a drug-trafficking case.

According to the filing, from 2010 to 2015 the defendant Christopher Castelluccio and his associates devised a scheme to distribute controlled substances. Beginning in 2013, they began selling various drugs via the darknet for bitcoins.

In July 2014, Castelluccio participated in an Ethereum ICO, purchasing 30,000 ETH. In 2016 he also received 30,000 ETC after the mainnet hard fork. The authorities are seeking to confiscate these coins as well.

He is currently serving a 20-year prison term in New Jersey for drug distribution. In 2021, he attempted to move the cryptocurrency he had out of the United States, including to hide it from the IRS.

However, law enforcement intercepted his phone conversations and seized the digital assets.

Earlier, 21.co analysts estimated that as of October the U.S. government held at least 194,188 BTC ($5.3 billion), obtained through seizures in a number of high-profile cases.