Terrorist accomplice arrested in the UK for trading in cryptocurrencies

December 23, 2021 by cryptobreak

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UK citizen Khuram Iqbal, 29, received a 16-month prison sentence for dealing in cryptocurrencies on the darknet. The story would have been quite trivial were it not for the grim facts of Iqbal’s background. It turns out he had already been sentenced to prison in 2014 for distributing terrorist publications and possessing dangerous information – including an al-Qaida magazine called Inspire. We tell you more about the situation.

Note that terrorist links to decentralised assets have long been hinted at by authorities and government agencies. In particular, in April 2018, Alexander Bortnikov, director of the Russian Federal Security Service, said that terrorists were actively using crypto and interacting with hackers. Read more about his point of view in a separate article.

At the same time, the viewpoint of former CIA chief Michael Morell is also worth mentioning. In April of this year, he confirmed that cybercriminals don’t like interacting with blockchain-based digital assets. It’s all down to storing a history of each transaction, which in addition is available to everyone.

Terrorists and cryptocurrencies

In 2014, he was sentenced to three years and three months in prison, but Iqbal was released on parole in May 2015. The second time, the Briton was arrested for breaching a ten-year notification order, which resulted in him failing to report his two cryptocurrency accounts to police. Iqbal pleaded guilty to a total of four offences between July and August 2019.

However, he will eventually go back to jail. And the reason for this was his association with decentralised assets.

Between 10 November 2017 and 20 March 2021, Iqbal made 392 cryptotransactions worth almost $15,900. In January 2020, the suspect conducted three BTC transfers linked to a darknet portal used to sell stolen credit card credentials.

Most interestingly, the terrorist’s accomplice didn’t even make a serious effort to hide his activities – he made all of his transfers and coin exchanges on Coinbase, a major US cryptocurrency exchange. The exchange released a report on suspicious activity, which helped significantly in the apprehension of the suspect.

Inspire Magazine

According to Decrypt, Iqbal told police that he was in fact trading cryptocurrencies, but denied using the darknet. However, his confiscated mobile phone was eventually found to have applications providing access to the darknet.

Prosecutor Paul Jarvis commented on the news. Here’s a rejoinder in which a spokesperson for the side of the law shared his perspective on the situation.

The nature of cryptocurrencies is such that they cannot be traced, so in reality he worked with two email addresses and two accounts for a long time beyond the suspicion of the police.

In reality, however, Iqbal's chosen method of transferring funds is hardly the most obvious to law enforcement agencies. Contrary to Jarvis' claim, Bitcoin transactions are very easy to trace because the cryptocurrency blockchain is transparent and accessible to all. Moreover, the suspect was using a large centralised exchange, making it even easier to find him.

Photo of the suspect

We believe that such situations should not reflect negatively on the reputation of digital assets. And while some do allow for anonymous transactions, cryptocurrencies remain a tool in people's hands anyway. And only the latter will decide how to interact with them.

What do you think about this? Share your opinion in our Millionaire Crypto Chat. There we will talk about other topics related to the decentralized asset industry.