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Indian Tax Intelligence Bureau: Smugglers Abandoning Hawala for Stablecoins
Summary: According to Decrypt, the Indian Tax Intelligence Bureau (DRI) warned in its '2024-25 India Smuggling Report' that cryptocurrencies and stablecoins are increasingly replacing the hawala network as the primary means of transferring funds for drug and gold smuggling activities. The report noted that digital assets provide smuggling groups with 'faster anonymous settlements, minimal regulation, and ...
According to Decrypt, the Indian Tax Intelligence Bureau (DRI) warned in its '2024-25 India Smuggling Report' that cryptocurrencies and stablecoins are increasingly replacing the hawala network as the primary means of transferring funds for drug and gold smuggling activities.
The report noted that digital assets provide smuggling groups with 'faster anonymous settlements, minimal regulation, and weak anti-money laundering compliance' due to their decentralized, anonymous, and borderless nature. In a case cracked by the DRI, a transnational gold smuggling group laundered over $12.7 million through hawala and USDT. The mastermind behind the operation used multiple crypto wallets for fund layering to maintain anonymity and communicated through encrypted applications like WeChat using VPN.
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Link: Indian Tax Intelligence Bureau: Smugglers Abandoning Hawala for Stablecoins [Copy]
