[ad_1]
The Irish High Court ruled that the cryptocurrency held by a convicted drug trafficker is classified as proceeds of crime.
The 2,000 Ethereum units owned by Neil Mannion, who is serving a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence after admitting drug crimes in 2015, were discovered by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB).
The Irish Times reports that the Ethereum was not seized together with other assets, including credit cards and bank accounts, at the time because the currency had not started to trade.
But after a review in 2016, CAB chose to submit a new application for it to be classified as proceeds of crime.
Mannion challenged the application, claiming that the investigators did not have the right to access his computer because the case had been dealt with in December 2015.
Ms. Justice Carmel Steward ruled that Mannion's legal rights were not violated, but said her arguments were not worthless.
He added that the complexity of data privacy and cryptocurrency trade could result in a breach in a future case and advised investigators to prepare for such an eventuality.
Mannion and another man, Richard O'Connor, were charged with possession of drugs worth € 143,000 following a raid on a property in Dublin in October 2014.
Journal.ie reports that Mannion sold drugs on the Internet and sent packages to customers in countries like Japan, Argentina, the Czech Republic and the United States in exchange for Bitcoin.
