Police in the United Kingdom (UK) can now seize crypto assets from suspects without making any arrests.
New legislation came into effect on Friday giving additional crypto-related powers to the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and the police, according to a new government announcement.
The announcement notes that the expanded powers will allow authorities to seize crypto from “sophisticated criminals” who remain anonymous or are based abroad. Police will also be given the power to seize physical items related to crypto investigations, such as flash drives and written passwords.
British police will now also be allowed to destroy crypto assets “if returning them to circulation would not be in the public interest”, and victims of crypto crime will be given the power to request the return of digital assets stolen from them.
Chief prosecutor Adrian Foster argues that the expanded powers are necessary in an era when criminals abuse crypto technology.
“Crypto assets are often used by criminal gangs to launder their criminal profits internationally at the touch of a button.
It is critical that investigators and prosecutors have the capabilities and flexibility to keep pace with this changing nature of crime. [and] these new measures will greatly aid our ability to restrict, freeze or eliminate crypto assets from illicit enterprises.”
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Featured image: Shutterstock/Mykola Holyutyak/Natalia Siiatovskaia