• A search made it possible to seize, from a couple and the homes of members of their entourage, in the Cambrésis, around two million euros in gold and cryptocurrency.

  • The husband is currently incarcerated for driving under the influence of alcohol and without a license.

  • The investigation is continuing to find out all the inner workings of transactions, especially on the Darknet.

An almost virtual Ali Baba cave.

The gendarmes of the Cambrai research brigade, in the North, got their hands, last week, on an extraordinary jackpot during searches.

They made it possible to seize, from a couple and the homes of members of their entourage, in the Cambrésis, 1.5 million euros of crypto-assets, as well as 10 kg of gold in ingots, and more than 250 coins. gold and silver, for a total estimated amount of 500,000 euros.

The defendants, a 43-year-old man and a 47-year-old woman, are suspected of laundering tax evasion thanks to the unique mechanism they had put in place.

Gains were obtained by speculating on cryptocurrency brokerage platforms - which is allowed - but they were never declared, which is less so.

A unique operating mode

The couple was taken into custody for forty-eight hours, before being released.

Well almost.

The husband has in fact been imprisoned since 2019 for driving while intoxicated and without a license.

It is the cybergendarmes of the research section of Villeneuve-d'Ascq, specialized in the financial field, who put their finger on the operating mode of money transfers set up by the duo.

In this mission, they were supported by another gendarmerie service: the regional cell of criminal assets in the North.

A disproportionate standard of living

The investigation began at the end of 2019. “At the time, the main defendant was heard by a magistrate in the context of his road litigation.

This man then reported a disproportionate standard of living in relation to his declared activities, which aroused attention, ”said the gendarmerie, in a press release.

Quickly, the investigations confirm that the interested party owns with his wife five houses and deposits of cash and crypto-assets, unrelated to their official income.

“Cyber ​​investigators eventually establish that large purchases of gold are made on the web in bitcoins and physically delivered to his home.

They also discover that the gold is then sold abroad, in particular in shops in Belgium, ”adds the gendarmerie.

The respondent is suspected of having acted in prison with the complicity of his wife.

Darknet Investigation

But where do bitcoins come from and how did the network come into being?

This is what cybergendarmes continue to seek without favoring any hypothesis.

"The interest of this case is that it allows us to hang an underground place of the Web called the Darknet where illicit transactions take place", adds a source.

The investigation is continuing to try to exploit the digital media seized during the searches and to uncover all the transactions.

Justice

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World

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  • Miscellaneous

  • Tax fraud

  • Bitcoin

  • Jail

  • Bleaching

  • Cambrai

  • Lille