{"id":251832,"date":"2020-02-23T14:22:39","date_gmt":"2020-02-23T19:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/?p=251832"},"modified":"2020-02-23T14:22:39","modified_gmt":"2020-02-23T19:22:39","slug":"jailed-irish-drug-dealer-lost-his-private-keys-cant-access-65m-bitcoin-fortune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/news\/jailed-irish-drug-dealer-lost-his-private-keys-cant-access-65m-bitcoin-fortune","title":{"rendered":"Jailed Irish Drug Dealer Lost His Private Keys, Can&#8217;t Access $65M Bitcoin Fortune"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">In another twist to what is shaping up to be a highly interesting crypto drug trafficking case, Clifton Collins has now told authorities that he\u2019s unable to access his $65 million Bitcoin fortune, as\u00a0<\/span><a class=\"_e75a791d-denali-editor-page-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/news\/crime-and-law\/drug-dealer-loses-codes-for-53-6m-bitcoin-accounts-1.4180182?localLinksEnabled=false&amp;utm_source=Newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=Drug+dealer+loses+codes+for+%E2%82%AC53+6m+bitcoin+accounts&amp;utm_c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">reported<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0by The Irish Times.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Collins, who was found to have dealt in narcotics years ago, was ordered by the High Court of Ireland to surrender his entire Bitcoin holdings to the Criminal Assets Bureau (CBA) after he was found to have purchased some of these assets with his criminal loot. However, by claiming that he can\u2019t find his private keys, it would appear that he\u2019s looking to avoid parting with his profits at all costs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Case Was Expected to Be Easy\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">According to a report from The Independent at the time, Collins supplied and sold drugs across the Republic of Ireland. Authorities had been investigating his operation as far back as 2017, when a car he was driving was stopped in the Wicklow Mountains and was found to have contained a significant amount of cannabis. He was subsequently charged under the Misuse of Drugs Act.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Independent pointed out that the Dublin native was an early investor in Bitcoin, and he purchased as much as 5,500 BTC over the past few years. However, authorities also suspected that most of his <a href=\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/news\/bitcoin-cash-price-prediction-bch-usd-smashes-through-375-level-to-test-the-support-zone\/251780\">Bitcoin<\/a> purchases were facilitated with funds he got from his drug operation. Under the Proceeds of Crime legislation, he was ordered by the court to surrender his entire holdings to authorities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The CAB further pointed out that they moved to confiscate his wealth in order to prevent him from moving the funds around without consent from the court. Since Collins didn\u2019t contest the ruling at the time, many took that as an admission of his guilt and saw the case as being open and shut.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Stupid Mistakes Cost Collins His Fortunes\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">As it would seem, however, there could still be more to this comedy of a case. As The Irish Times reported, Collins had purchased up to 6,000 BT by 2017 and chose to secure himself from possible theft. So, he distributed his wealth across 12 exchanges, throwing in 500 BTC into each of them. Then, he reportedly printed the keys to all the wallets and wrote them down on a piece of paper, which he kept inside his fishing rod case and kept at home.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The report added that while he was arrested in 2017, his house was broken into. His landlord also reportedly ordered that his house be cleared out upon hearing of the arrest, leading to dump workers emptying his house and shipping the dump to China and Germany. Since then, no one seems to have found the fishing rod case.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The report was corroborated by several witnesses, including Collins\u2019 landlord, the dump workers who helped clear his house, and the people who helped him to distribute his Bitcoin holdings back in 2017.\u00a0 <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The outcome of the case is yet to be known, although the smart money will be on some equally comical twist coming in the near future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fin-excerpt\">\u00a0In another twist to what is shaping up to be a highly interesting crypto drug trafficking case, Clifton Collins has now told authorities that he\u2019s <a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/news\/jailed-irish-drug-dealer-lost-his-private-keys-cant-access-65m-bitcoin-fortune\" title=\"Jailed Irish Drug Dealer Lost His Private Keys, Can&#8217;t Access $65M Bitcoin Fortune\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1770,"featured_media":251834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[734,10399,9622,10400],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.8 (Yoast SEO v21.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Jailed Irish Drug Dealer Lost His Private Keys, Can&#039;t Access $65M Bitcoin Fortune - InsideBitcoins.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Crypto drug trafficking case, Clifton Collins has now told authorities that he\u2019s unable to access his $65 million Bitcoin fortune\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jailed Irish Drug Dealer Lost His Private Keys, Can&#039;t Access $65M Bitcoin Fortune\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Crypto drug trafficking case, Clifton Collins has now told authorities that he\u2019s unable to access his $65 million Bitcoin fortune\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"InsideBitcoins.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-23T19:22:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/image-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"810\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jimmy Aki\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jimmy Aki\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jimmy Aki\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a66ff7827d8bed054aa6be4e9d8c1dad\"},\"headline\":\"Jailed Irish Drug Dealer Lost His Private Keys, Can&#8217;t Access $65M Bitcoin Fortune\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-23T19:22:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-23T19:22:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832\"},\"wordCount\":517,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Bitcoin\",\"drug\",\"Republic of Ireland\",\"trafficking\"],\"articleSection\":[\"More Crypto News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2020\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832#primaryimage\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832\",\"name\":\"Jailed Irish Drug Dealer Lost His Private Keys, Can't Access $65M Bitcoin Fortune - InsideBitcoins.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-23T19:22:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-23T19:22:39+00:00\",\"description\":\"Crypto drug trafficking case, Clifton Collins has now told authorities that he\u2019s unable to access his $65 million Bitcoin fortune\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832\"]}],\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832#primaryimage\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/\",\"name\":\"InsideBitcoins.com\",\"description\":\"Search &amp; Compare Brokers within Crypto, Forex &amp; Stocks\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"InsideBitcoins\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/insidebitcoins.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/insidebitcoins.svg\",\"width\":195,\"height\":32,\"caption\":\"InsideBitcoins\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a66ff7827d8bed054aa6be4e9d8c1dad\",\"name\":\"Jimmy Aki\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/avatar_user_1770_1713269729-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/avatar_user_1770_1713269729-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Jimmy Aki\"},\"description\":\"Jimmy has been following the development of blockchain for several years, and he is optimistic about its potential to democratize the financial system. Jimmy's previously published work can be found on Business2Community, EconomyWatch, Learnbonds.com, Basketball Insiders, Buyshares.co.uk and a range of other leading media publications. Jimmy has also been investing in Bitcoin since 2018 and more recently in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) since their boom in 2021.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jimiakinleye\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/news\/author\/jimmyaki\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jailed Irish Drug Dealer Lost His Private Keys, Can't Access $65M Bitcoin Fortune - InsideBitcoins.com","description":"Crypto drug trafficking case, Clifton Collins has now told authorities that he\u2019s unable to access his $65 million Bitcoin fortune","robots":{"max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jailed Irish Drug Dealer Lost His Private Keys, Can't Access $65M Bitcoin Fortune","og_description":"Crypto drug trafficking case, Clifton Collins has now told authorities that he\u2019s unable to access his $65 million Bitcoin fortune","og_site_name":"InsideBitcoins.com","article_published_time":"2020-02-23T19:22:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1440,"height":810,"url":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/image-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jimmy Aki","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jimmy Aki","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832"},"author":{"name":"Jimmy Aki","@id":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a66ff7827d8bed054aa6be4e9d8c1dad"},"headline":"Jailed Irish Drug Dealer Lost His Private Keys, Can&#8217;t Access $65M Bitcoin Fortune","datePublished":"2020-02-23T19:22:39+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-23T19:22:39+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832"},"wordCount":517,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["Bitcoin","drug","Republic of Ireland","trafficking"],"articleSection":["More Crypto News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2020","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832#primaryimage"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832","url":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832","name":"Jailed Irish Drug Dealer Lost His Private Keys, Can't Access $65M Bitcoin Fortune - InsideBitcoins.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-02-23T19:22:39+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-23T19:22:39+00:00","description":"Crypto drug trafficking case, Clifton Collins has now told authorities that he\u2019s unable to access his $65 million Bitcoin fortune","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832"]}],"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832#primaryimage"}},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/","name":"InsideBitcoins.com","description":"Search &amp; Compare Brokers within Crypto, Forex &amp; Stocks","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#organization","name":"InsideBitcoins","url":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/insidebitcoins.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/insidebitcoins.svg","width":195,"height":32,"caption":"InsideBitcoins"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a66ff7827d8bed054aa6be4e9d8c1dad","name":"Jimmy Aki","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/avatar_user_1770_1713269729-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/avatar_user_1770_1713269729-96x96.png","caption":"Jimmy Aki"},"description":"Jimmy has been following the development of blockchain for several years, and he is optimistic about its potential to democratize the financial system. Jimmy's previously published work can be found on Business2Community, EconomyWatch, Learnbonds.com, Basketball Insiders, Buyshares.co.uk and a range of other leading media publications. Jimmy has also been investing in Bitcoin since 2018 and more recently in non-fungible tokens (NFTs) since their boom in 2021.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jimiakinleye\/"],"url":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/news\/author\/jimmyaki"}]}},"modified_by":"Jimmy Aki","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1770"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}