Brazil police raids gang allegedly using crypto to launder illegal gold mining

On Thursday, Brazil's federal police conducted an investigation against an accused criminal organization that they said was using cryptocurrency tokens to conceal proceeds from illicit gold mining.

On Thursday, Brazil's federal police conducted an investigation against an accused criminal organization that they said was using cryptocurrency tokens to conceal proceeds from illicit gold mining.

In the course of the operation, police executed 60 search and seizure orders and made five arrests.

The Greed operation, according to the federal police, included medical businesses that have been laundering cash from illicit gold mining in the northern state of Rondonia since at least 2012. Among other money laundering techniques, the criminal organization utilized its own cryptocurrency token, according to the authorities.

According to the report, the token was developed by one of the group's shell businesses and was used to "justify the sums deriving from the illicit extraction of gold... as if they were investments of other parties interested in obtaining dividends."

The federal police's financial investigation revealed that approximately 16 billion reais ($3 billion) passed through the group's bank accounts between 2019 and 2021.

Police also claimed that the gang was the owner of a mining business that illegally obtained environmental licenses to launder gold taken from other illicit mines in the nation's north.