Irish police have successfully cracked a drug dealer's long-dormant Bitcoin wallet, seizing 500 BTC.

PANews reported on March 25th, citing Cointelegraph, that the Irish National Police's Criminal Assets Department announced it had successfully cracked one of 12 Bitcoin wallets linked to a convicted drug dealer, recovering 500 Bitcoins worth over $35 million. The wallet's owner was Clifton Collins, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2017 for cultivating and selling cannabis. Between 2011 and 2012, Collins used proceeds from drug transactions to purchase 6,000 Bitcoins, which he then distributed across 12 wallets. The key was printed on an A4 sheet of paper and hidden inside a fishing rod case, which was later lost when the landlord was cleaning the property.

Earlier today, it was reported that Irish drug traffickers deposited 500 BTC, worth $35.44 million, into Coinbase for the first time in nearly 10 years .