The Royal Court of the British city of Swansea accused a local resident of hiding the proceeds from the cocaine trade on two crypto wallets.

After nearly a year of investigation, the Crown Court found Fraser Cuberhives, 36, guilty. According to the prosecution, as a result of criminal activity, the Briton received more than 380,000 pounds (almost $500,000). The suspect then converted the funds received into bitcoins under the guise of an independent investment in crypto assets. The prosecution believes that in this way Kuberhives tried to hide about 18 military-technical cooperation from law enforcement agencies.

Cooberhives’ defense lawyer filed a protest with the court, stating that the amount of claims against the client and the estimate of the amount of financial proceeds from the sale of prohibited substances are not true. The court agreed with the arguments of the defense and appointed an additional investigation. The final announcement of the verdict is scheduled for May.

This is not the first time that a British court is considering a case of drug trafficking and concealment of criminal proceeds using crypto assets. In 2022, the court sentenced British resident Simon Barclay to nine years in prison, who was seized $6.7 million in cryptocurrencies and $1.4 million worth of drugs.

In March, former Belgian Finance Minister Johan Van Overtveldt drew the attention of members of the European Parliament to the connection between cryptocurrencies and drugs and called on the EU authorities to take urgent measures to protect national financial systems in the form of an immediate ban on cryptocurrencies.