France: dismantling of a terrorist cyber-financing network in Syria
The network was based on the purchase, in France, of cryptocurrency coupons, a virtual currency, bitcoins that escape the control of banks.
JACK GUEZ / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office has just dismantled a large network.
This operation led to 55 searches in 26 different departments and the placement in police custody of 29 people, most of whom are suspected of having injected funds into the network for the benefit of relatives in Syria.
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This network had been active for a year.
It was based on the purchase, in France, of cryptocurrency coupons, a virtual currency, bitcoins that escape the control of banks.
The investigation reveals that dozens of people regularly went to tobacco shops to anonymously buy coupons worth between 10 and 150 euros.
They were then credited to accounts opened from abroad by jihadists.
The latter then took care of converting them directly on transaction platforms.
The investigators were able to identify two French jihadists at the origin of this terrorist financing network.
Both are 25 years old, they joined Syria in 2013 and are suspected of being members of a terrorist group affiliated with al-Qaeda.
The two men are already targeted by an arrest warrant, following a first sentence of 10 years imprisonment, pronounced in 2016 by the Paris Criminal Court.
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Terrorism
France
Syria