South Australian Police Seized $1.5M in Crypto from Drug Trafficking Accused

South Australian police have arrested a 25-year-old man from the Adelaide Hills on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering.

According to a report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Thursday, the accused person has created several vendor profiles on the dark web and is selling various drugs.

One of the drugs seized during the investigation is the synthetic opioid “Nitazen” which is of great concern because of its high toxicity.

Detective Superintendent Adam Rice described the dangers associated with nitazene, comparing it to fentanyl, but saying it is not approved for human consumption.

“They are very toxic drugs similar to fentanyl, but they are completely unacceptable for human consumption and the risk of overdose is high,” he said.

Police believe up to 5kg of nitazene represents the largest amount ever seized in Australia.

In July, SA Health issued a warning about protonitazen following two confirmed overdoses and two suspected cases, including one death, in which the drug is believed to have played a role.

However, Superintendent Rice clarified that there is currently no evidence linking the alleged dark web host to the reported death.

SA Police launched an investigation into the dark web provider earlier this year.

The dark web began investigating the activities of suppliers earlier this year to target the illegal drug trade online.

Police have successfully traced a cryptocurrency used in illegal transactions to a real-life individual in South Australia.

In September, law enforcement carried out search and seizure operations at a residential address and two storage units in the Adelaide Hills, resulting in the seizure of large quantities of illegal drugs, cash, cryptocurrency and electronic devices.

According to Superintendent Rice, the accused individual received a large payment in cryptocurrency, with an estimated $1.5 million worth of crypto seized during the operation.

Small amounts of cash totaling tens of thousands of dollars were also seized.

South Australian police confirmed that the 25-year-old suspect has been remanded in custody.

In September, he stole more than 330 million dollars in Crypto

Throughout September, nearly $332 million was lost through various exploits, hacks, and scams, making it a record month for crypto exploits.

One notable event was the Mixin Network attack on September 23.

The Hong Kong-based decentralized chain transmission protocol suffered a major breach, costing the cloud service provider $200 million.

Another major incident occurred on September 12, when CoinEx, a cryptocurrency exchange, suffered a suspected attack following massive outflows from four hot wallets.

This breach resulted in over $53.1 million in losses on hot wallets.

In late August, Web3 bug bounty platform Immunefi said that DeFi and crypto platforms have lost more than $1.2 billion in hacks and carpet dragging so far this year.

The report said a total of 211 separate incidents contributed to this huge total, and in August alone, it suffered a loss of $23.4 million.