Every police force in the UK is trained to investigate crimes around cryptocurrency and potentially seize it.
Detective chief superintendent Andy Gould, the head of the UK’s National Police Chiefs’ Council, told Parliament that £100 million had been spent over the last four years to create “cryptocurrency tactical advisers across the whole of policing”.
Gould, the NPCC national cyber crime programme lead and an Interpol global cybercrime expert, was speaking during a parliamentary debate on the UK Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill.
He said that forces do not, however, have the capacity to address economic crimes involving crypto.
“There are now officers in every force and every regional organised crime unit who are trained and equipped [to investigate crime involving cryptocurrencies],” Gould said.
“We have nationally procured the investigative tools to enable them to progress the investigations, and we have a national storage platform to store that once we have seized it.
“We are in a position where we have actually seized hundreds of millions of pounds worth of cryptocurrency assets within the last year or so. The challenge we have is that it is getting harder and harder to do.
“The assets themselves are becoming more diverse and more technically complex, so our officers are in a bit of an arms race trying to keep up.”