The DEA warning on Bitcoin ATMs

According to the agency report “National Drug Threat Assessment 2020”, the relevance of money laundering from these ATMs over the past year has increased due to the fact that physical money transfers have been blocked due to the restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic, particularly between states United and Mexico.

“Large sums of money to be delivered to international drug traffickers were stuck in the United States”, the DEA warned in the document, urging them to increasingly use these machines in money laundering operations, especially as the use of cryptocurrency became widespread.

In the United States, there are nearly 14,000 such ATMs, many of which are regulated by anti-money laundering laws, but according to the DEA, “Despite the regulations, the owners of these machines do not hesitate to use their functions to help hide drug money.”

“This cash is then integrated into the cash flow of the owner of the ATM, hiding the origin of the funds.”, the detailed report.

Thus, drug money, converted into digital currency, can be transferred instantly to another user, eliminating much of the risk associated with carrying large amounts of money.

There are also ATMs that require a photograph of the user, but according to the DEA drug traffickers have found a way to escape this control and use ATMs not included in official lists and not accessible. to the general public.

Although according to the crypto news site, it should be considered that Bitcoin transactions are pseudonymous and public. And they can be viewed and associate the address with a certain identity. Thus, we know that money laundering with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is increasingly centralized in a few addresses and entities.