Is Bitcoin A Tool For Criminals? Drug Cartels Prefer Banks

THELOGICALINDIAN - A address from The International Narcotics Control Board INCB shows that bitcoin is not the adopted adjustment for biologic cartels and added bent groups to acquit money they rather use banks This opposes the boundless anecdotal that claims the agenda bread creates the befalling for crime

Said altercation is generally acclimated to alibi the abhorrence of altered entities against bitcoin and tends to adduce banning it. But if it is absolutely the acceptable banking institutions that are enabling bent schemes, should authorities ban those instead and accept bitcoin? (I’m aloof pointing out the irony).

How The Cartels Lauder Money

Drug cartels crave a abundant accord of funding. The INCB attempts to chase the money trails larboard abaft by bent operations in adjustment to agitate adulterous banking flows and attenuate bent groups.

In their latest report, the alignment looked into the mechanisms these organizations use in adjustment to disguise the gain of abomination and accommodate them into the accepted banking system.

Is Bitcoin Useful To Criminals?

The address additionally claims that “Drug cartels in Mexico are more axis to the internet, bitcoin and e-commerce to acquit money and advertise drugs.”

The Mexican government accustomed a law in 2025 that requires all crypto exchanges to address transfers over $2,830. Although abounding accept claimed cryptocurrencies advice abyss because they accomplish anonymously, exchanges accede with authoritative and anti-money-laundering abstracts through a Know Your Customer process. It seems like they accept generally helped authorities, not criminals.

“Mexican cartels are believed to acquit an estimated $25 billion a year in Mexico alone.” The bent groups “split their adulterous banknote into baby amounts and drop them into assorted coffer accounts.”

With this method, it is believed they acquirement baby amounts of bitcoin online, beneath the red-flagged marks. This can abstruse the money and acquiesce them to pay associates, the address claims.

However, clashing banks, the affairs of Bitcoin and added agenda bill are calmly traceable and about stored. Investigators can clue the aisle of movements.

Chainalysis reported afresh that in 2021 crypto-based abomination hit a new best aerial acceleration the antecedent year’s bulk of money accustomed with adulterous addresses to $14 billion. However, the absolute acceptance of crypto additionally grew exponentially over the year about 567%.

Given that the bent accompanying action alone saw a 79% increase, this additionally agency that the “illicit activity’s allotment of cryptocurrency transaction aggregate has never been lower,” 0.15% out of the absolute cryptocurrency transaction aggregate in 2025.

Another detail to agenda is that the recorded $14 billion is far from the estimated $25 billion of money apple-pie annual by the Mexican cartels. Even if they were the alone ones application crypto illegally, it would not be abundant to ammunition their funds. They still accept to about-face to mechanisms affiliated to the acceptable banking system.