New Delhi: After cracking down on drug trafficking being conducted through the darknet recently, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) is set to freeze about 500 bitcoins in the accounts of traffickers, the first ever seizure of the virtual, unregulated currency in a criminal probe in the country. The central agency, the nodal department to combat drug trafficking and liaise with multiple narcotics control and enforcement agencies, has interdicted and begun investigation against three syndicates in the country till now, and in one case detected in western India, it is moving to seize bitcoins. “While criminal probe agencies have seized a variety of assets like cash and immovable assets in their respective investigations all these years, bitcoins have never been frozen as part of the tainted assets seizure. The NCB is moving in that direction,” people in the agency familiar with the matter said. Officials, however, declined to disclose further details about the specific case which has been referred to the NCB headquarters for vetting.

Source: Mint October 23, 2016 11:03 UTC