{"id":79314,"date":"2023-05-25T13:16:36","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T10:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=79314"},"modified":"2025-09-11T10:20:29","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T07:20:29","slug":"elliptic-fentanyl-precursor-shipments-from-china-to-the-us-paid-in-bitcoins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/elliptic-fentanyl-precursor-shipments-from-china-to-the-us-paid-in-bitcoins\/","title":{"rendered":"Elliptic: fentanyl precursor shipments from China to the US paid in bitcoins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/what-is-tether-usdt\">USDT<\/a> and Bitcoin are the most common payment methods used by 81 of the 90 fentanyl precursor suppliers, which spurred an &#8216;epidemic&#8217; in the United States, according to Elliptic analysts.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Read the full research piece here, and sign up for our upcoming report &#8220;The Use of Crypto in Fentanyl Trafficking&#8221;:<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yhJO0azVUU\">https:\/\/t.co\/yhJO0azVUU<\/a><br \/>6\/6<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Elliptic (@elliptic) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elliptic\/status\/1661031966538620930?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 23, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Analysts noted that thousands of payments totaling more than $27 million were directed to wallets used by these companies. Over the year, the number of transactions rose by 450%. From that total, end products worth $54 billion could be produced.<\/p>\n<p>Two-thirds of receipts came in Bitcoin, with only 1% in digital assets other than Bitcoin and USDT.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.elliptic.co\/hs-fs\/hubfs\/Elliptic_Fentanyl_Supplier_Graph.png?width=5001&#038;height=2613&#038;name=Elliptic_Fentanyl_Supplier_Graph.png\" alt=\"Cryptocurrency payments received by identified fentanyl precursor suppliers\"\/><figcaption>Data: Elliptic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>One of the largest fentanyl traders paid $84,598 in Bitcoin to a supplier in Elliptic&#8217;s sample between March 2019 and May 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The White House said on April 11 that it intends to &#8220;expand efforts to curb illicit financing of such criminals through sanctions&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>On April 14, the U.S. Treasury imposed restrictions on a number of individuals and entities from China for supplying fentanyl precursors to Mexican drug cartels. The notice also lists the cryptocurrency wallets used by them.<\/p>\n<p>Elliptic specialists, posing as potential buyers, engaged in dialogue with the suppliers and confirmed the viability of payments in digital assets.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>&#8220;They always use USDT or Bitcoin. &#8230; This is not a problem,&#8221;<\/em> they told them.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Analysts identified three exchanges based outside China that complied with AML requirements, whose services were used by fentanyl precursor manufacturers. <span data-descr=\"\u0431\u043e\u0440\u044c\u0431\u0430 \u0441 \u043e\u0442\u043c\u044b\u0432\u0430\u043d\u0438\u0435\u043c \u0434\u0435\u043d\u0435\u0433\" class=\"old_tooltip\">AML<\/span>-requirements<\/p>\n<p>Specialists handed them &#8220;hundreds of addresses&#8221; for blocking, and pledged to continue supporting efforts to prevent the use of cryptocurrency by suppliers of drug ingredients.<\/p>\n<p>As reported in May 2023, Europol<a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/europol-shuts-down-darknet-marketplace-monopoly-market-and-seizes-cryptocurrency\"> closed<\/a> the darknet marketplace Monopoly Market, seizing \u20ac50,8 million ($53,4 million) in digital assets and cash. In addition to the money, authorities seized 850 kg of synthetic drugs and 117 units of firearms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>USDT and Bitcoin are the most common payment methods used by 81 of the 90 fentanyl precursor suppliers, according to Elliptic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1535,686],"class_list":["post-79314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-elliptic","tag-sanctions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"29","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79316,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79314\/revisions\/79316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}