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Irish authorities said they have gained access to one Bitcoin wallet tied to convicted drug dealer Clifton Collins, years after the recovery phrase was believed lost.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The wallet held 500 Bitcoin, and the seizure followed support from Europol\u2019s European Cybercrime Centre.<\/p>\n Ireland\u2019s Criminal Assets Bureau said<\/a> on Tuesday that it had \u201cgained access to and seized a cryptocurrency wallet\u201d linked to an earlier criminal case. The bureau said the wallet contained 500 Bitcoin, valued at more than $35 million at current market prices.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The agency said Europol supported the operation through meetings in The Hague and by providing technical help. CAB said Europol offered \u201chighly complex technical expertise and decryption resources vital to the success of the operation.\u201d Authorities did not explain how they gained access to the wallet.<\/p>\n The Irish Times reported<\/a> that the recovered wallet was one of 12 wallets once linked to Collins. Those wallets reportedly held a combined 6,000 Bitcoin bought in late 2011 and early 2012 using proceeds from a cannabis operation.<\/p>\n According to earlier reports, Collins stored the wallet keys on a single sheet of A4 paper. He hid that paper inside the aluminum cap of a fishing rod case kept at his rented home. The paper later went missing, and access to the Bitcoin was widely believed to be gone.<\/p>\n Moreover, blockchain intelligence platform Arkham labeled<\/a> one wallet \u201cClifton Collins: Lost Keys.\u201d On Tuesday, that wallet moved 500 Bitcoin to Coinbase Prime, more than a decade after the coins were first deposited.<\/p>\n\n
Wallet was part of larger Bitcoin stash<\/strong><\/h1>\n