The post Balkan crime groups cash in on crypto to move funds, with almost no seizures on records appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Criminal networks operating in the Western Balkans are reportedly taking advantage of lax legislation and enforcement by regulators to use cryptocurrencies to launder illicit funds. According to a new report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, despite the growing adoption of digital assets by criminal enterprises in the region, authorities have recorded only a handful of successful asset seizures. Crypto is the preferred financial highway for Balkan criminal networks The report recalled that as of 2023, about 240,000 individuals owned crypto in the region, with most of them based primarily in Serbia. The transaction volume estimate at the time was between $25 billion and $30 billion. However, the figure is a mix of legitimate and criminal elements who have leveraged digital assets technology to facilitate their operations, helping them obfuscate their identities and bypass the scrutiny of traditional financial institutions. While governments around the world are putting legislation in place and upgrading their ability to track and seize virtual assets of bad actors, the countries in the Western Balkans continue to lag behind, with no major sign that the trend will be changing soon. A significant issue highlighted in the report is the limited or lack of regulatory framework and technical capacity among law enforcement agencies in the region. Seizures are rare despite widespread use To date, there have been only three documented cases of virtual asset seizures in the region. One notable case involved an Albanian organized crime group engaged in drug trafficking and theft. The Albanian authorities collaborated with counterparts from Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, and Europol between November 2024 and January 2025 to bring the group to book. The operation seized assets such as wallets containing $10 million in crypto assets. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia are the only countries in the region with…

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Filed under: News - @ May 15, 2025 9:24 pm