Overview
- The Criminal Assets Bureau, which accessed a long-dormant wallet on Tuesday, March 24, moved about 500 Bitcoin to Coinbase Prime.
- The wallet is linked to Clifton Collins, a convicted cannabis cultivator who split about 6,000 BTC across 12 wallets more than a decade ago.
- He recorded the private keys on paper hidden in a fishing-rod case that went missing after his 2017 arrest, which left a 2020 court-ordered confiscation stalled.
- Europol’s cybercrime unit supplied technical expertise and decryption resources, and authorities have not said how they gained access.
- Investigators say the same approach could unlock the remaining 11 wallets holding roughly 5,500 BTC, and Arkham Intelligence traced the latest movement after nearly ten years of inactivity.