A federal police officer is at the moment present process authorized proceedings within the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court docket, going through allegations of pocketing confiscated cryptocurrency from a web based drug trafficking syndicate.
The committal listening to, presided over by Justice of the Peace Malcolm Thomas, is ongoing, with the defendant’s lawyer saying the case was “circumstantial” and they’d dispute the accusations.
Drug Trafficking Raid Unveiled Crypto
William Wheatley, the at the moment suspended federal police officer, was initially charged in December 2022. In line with court docket paperwork, Wheatley is accused of stealing 81.616 Bitcoin from a cryptocurrency pockets that was discovered throughout an investigation into drug and steroid trafficking through the postal system in January 2019.
Throughout a raid, regulation enforcement found vital portions of drugs resembling steroids and an encrypted e-mail service that was allegedly getting used for drug transactions, with funds made in Bitcoin. Subsequently, a Trezor-brand {hardware} crypto pockets was discovered and handed over to the Icarus detectives.
Roughly three weeks later, the Icarus Taskforce, answerable for the raid, obtained approval from a Justice of the Peace to regain entry to the digital pockets. Cyber Crime Squad Detective Sergeant Deon Achtypis, who was referred to as to help following the raid, gained entry to the pockets on February 14 and located that 81.616 Bitcoin had been transferred from the pockets shortly after 5 pm on January 29 – 4 days after the system’s seizure.
The stolen quantity, valued at round $450,000 on the time, was transferred to 2 extra digital wallets earlier than its traceability was misplaced. At this time, an identical quantity of Bitcoin could be valued at over $6.3 million.
Investigation Reveals Officer’s Involvement
Investigators initially suspected that an affiliate of the drug traffickers orchestrated the motion of the funds. Nevertheless, the case was reopened in 2021 when new tracing instruments instructed the involvement of a police officer.
Detective Achtypis found that one of many related IP addresses was linked to the then-AFP headquarters in Melbourne, main him to invest {that a} police officer might need been concerned within the crypto switch.
Craig Gillespie, a crypto investigator based mostly in Wales, was employed by the Australian Fee for Regulation Enforcement Integrity to trace and hint the funds. Gillespie confirmed that between January 29 and April 11, 2019, 28 transactions have been carried out from the pockets on numerous crypto platforms. A few of these transactions have been allegedly traced again to withdrawals deposited into Mr. Wheatley’s checking account between 2019 and September 2022.
In the course of the proceedings, AFP officer Jesse Wyatt testified that he was the only real federal police officer current through the search in Hoppers Crossing on January 25. He admitted that when the cryptocurrency pockets was found, he was unaware of its nature and contacted Mr. Wheatley, described as a “specialist” within the AFP’s cybercrime division, for help.
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