Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin ATMs Show Gap in EU’s Money Laundering Rules, Police Say
- Spanish police busted ring that sent money to drug traffickers
- Crypto cash machines are spreading rapidly around the world
A bitcoin ATM in Barcelona.
Photographer: Josep Lago LAGO/AFP via Getty Images
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A Spanish effort to prosecute a gang that used Bitcoin automated cash machines suspected of being a front for illegal-drug payments has exposed a hole in European anti-money-laundering controls, law-enforcement authorities in the country said.
Rules designed to force money handlers to vet their clients don’t apply to the cash machines’ owners or to cryptocurrency trading platforms, according to drug-enforcement officials from the Civil Guard, a type of police in Spain.