- Gang leaders instructed relatives and friends to launder the profits using Coinbase
- By converting the money into crypto, it could be impossible to retrieve
Four members of a drug gang have been jailed for laundering millions in cryptocurrency. According to police, they sold around 80 pounds of cocaine with a street value of just under $6 million, BBC reported.
The leaders of the gang, Amir Khan, 30, and Joshua Billingham, 26, instructed relatives and friends to launder the profits using Coinbase crypto exchange while they were in prison.
Truly astounding criminality
Joshua Billingham was sentenced to 14 years and eight months. Khan was sentenced to 20 years and seven months. Both were sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court in the UK. Their crimes include conspiracy to convert criminal property and conspiracy to supply drugs, including cocaine, ketamine, and ecstasy. Judge Jeremy Jenkins described gang leader Khan’s criminality as “truly staggering.”
Money is impossible to recover
By converting the money into crypto, it could be impossible to retrieve. An accomplice, Joshua Collins, will serve seven years and eight months for conspiracy to convert criminal property and supply drugs.
Eyes wide open
Billingham’s partner, Stacey Challenger, will serve only 12 months for conspiring to launder money using cryptocurrency and laundering more than £300,000. According to Julia Cox, the young mother’s attorney, her client had been “naive.” She has a two-year-old child with Billingham, and they were both unemployed.
Police found a money counting machine, designer clothes worth more than £10,000, and a Range Rover outside the couple’s Caerphilly home when they raided it. The judge asked Challenger why they possessed a money counter when both she and her partner were jobless.
Challenger’s attorney said she had been used by her partner and acted on his instructions.
$176K is still missing
According to information received by the court, more than $176,000 had been transferred to a crypto wallet, which sum remains unaccounted for. All of the defendants must serve half their sentences before they are eligible for bail. The drug gang has eight other members, who await sentencing today.
