Drug traffickers are turning to cryptocurrencies to pay for drug shipments and launder money.

Those who fight drug trafficking on a daily basis have long been striving to economically strangle criminal organizations and combat money laundering, regardless of whether a drug shipment is larger or smaller. Because if criminals traffic, it's to make millions. But drug traffickers have found their particular "golden goose" in cryptoassets, both for laundering and paying for their shipments: they avoid handling physical cash, move thousands of euros in seconds, and bypass intermediaries. Investigators are looking for tools to combat them.

This Thursday, the Galician Foundation Against Drug Trafficking brought together police officers, prosecutors , and even an ethical hacker, Bernando Viqueira, for a workshop at the Galician Academy of Public Security in A Estrada (Pontevedra) to address the challenge. Because, as José Luis Pérez Manzano, captain of the technical unit of the Judicial Police of the Civil Guard, warned, although criminals will always be ahead of investigators and the law, "we must move quickly" in the search for new methods to combat them.

Drug traffickers are increasingly dealing in crypto assets and cryptocurrencies. "Completing a transaction like this takes 12 seconds; it's any trafficker's dream," warns Commissioner Francisco José Redondo Rodríguez, head of the Central Support Brigade of the Central Police Unit (UDYCO). "They only need access to a virtual wallet, and they leave us stranded when it comes to seizing that money," he adds. But not all cryptocurrencies are the same, as Viqueira explained. And drug traffickers know this well. They often turn to so-called "stablecoins," as their value is more stable than the famous "bitcoins." "They're not stupid, and they try to play it safe," Pérez Manzano confirms.

All in all, investigators look for weak spots in criminal organizations' maneuvers to try to corner them. For example, the moments when they exchange a currency, whether euros or dollars, for cryptocurrency; or when they make the reverse journey. These are the most critical steps because, for example, to buy cryptocurrency they have to go through a virtual asset server. In other words, they already need third parties, and that transaction will always leave a trace.

But this transfer of millions in cryptocurrency by drug traffickers also creates uncertainty in the courts. What should be done with it when it's seized preemptively? Beyond how to safeguard it, is it advisable to exchange it for cash? Its value will always fluctuate. What if the person under investigation is found innocent and the cryptocurrency must be returned when its value plummets? On this issue, for example, the speakers yesterday couldn't agree. Many questions remain to be answered regarding this new scenario.