Irish authorities recovered another 500 BTC linked to convicted drug trafficker Clifton Collins, bringing the Criminal Assets Bureau’s total 2026 seizures from the case to 1,500 BTC.
The latest batch carries a current value of about €27 million, according to the bureau’s Thursday statement.
Meanwhile, the recovery adds another chapter to one of Ireland’s best-known crypto crime cases. The Bitcoin came from a group of wallets tied to Collins, who reportedly bought thousands of BTC more than a decade ago with proceeds from cannabis trafficking.
Irish CAB confirms another Bitcoin seizure
The Criminal Assets Bureau said it seized a further 500 BTC with support from Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre. The agency said the recovered Bitcoin represented proceeds of crime and brought its total 2026 recovery to 1,500 BTC.
CAB said Europol hosted operational meetings at its headquarters in The Hague. It also said Europol gave investigators and analysts “highly complex technical expertise and decryption resources” that helped the operation. The bureau added, “The Bureau has no further comment to make at this time.”
This is the third seizure, with the previous two being 500 BTC apiece, in the same case from this year. The first wallet was accessed by authorities in March and the second in May. With the third recovery, roughly 4,500 BTC remain in dormant wallets, according to onchain metrics.
The case was notable in that the Bitcoin had been considered unattainable for a long time. The private keys were said to be lost years ago and the wallets were not used for about 10 years until the recovery of funds was initiated in 2026.
Clifton Collins case started with lost private keys
The Irish Times reported in 2020 that Collins had built a large Bitcoin position after buying the asset in late 2011 and early 2012. He later divided just over 6,000 BTC across 12 wallets, placing 500 BTC in each account.
According to that report, Collins printed the wallet codes on paper and hid them inside the aluminum cap of a fishing rod case at a rented property in County Galway. After his arrest and prison sentence, the property was cleared, and the fishing rod case was never found.
The waste from the relevant dump was sent overseas for incineration, leaving the codes out of reach. At the time, the lost access codes made it impossible for the state to sell the seized Bitcoin, even though the wallets had already been confiscated.
Collins had allegedly been connected to the cultivation and trafficking of cannabis. Furthermore, he invested in the purchase of Bitcoin at just a few dollars per coin with the proceeds from that endeavor. The same premises subsequently expanded to become one of the biggest cryptoseizure operations ever carried out in Ireland.
Europol support helps unlock dormant crypto
The latest recovery shows how cybercrime units and crypto investigators continue to work on old wallet cases. CAB credited Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre for technical support, including decryption resources and expert help during the operation.
Authorities have not disclosed the method used to access the wallets. That detail matters because, in most Bitcoin cases, lost private keys make funds permanently unreachable. However, this case shows that some seized assets may remain recoverable when investigators have enough data and technical support.
Arkham reported in March that a wallet linked to Collins moved $35 million in BTC after years of dormancy. Arkham said Collins bought 6,000 BTC in 2011 and 2012, and that one of the accounts later moved funds to Coinbase Custody.
Onchain tracking now remains central to the case. Arkham’s public entity page for Clifton Collins tracks wallets and activity tied to the case, while recent reporting says about 4,500 BTC remains in dormant wallets.
Seized Bitcoin keeps policy debate alive
The Collins recovery comes as governments continue to face questions about how to store, sell or hold confiscated crypto. As previously reported in May, the U.S. has also discussed whether seized BTC should form part of a national digital asset stockpile.
That report said crypto assets confiscated from criminal case investigations were part of a broader policy debate around a strategic BTC reserve. While that story focused on the U.S., the Collins case shows how seized Bitcoin can become more valuable over time while authorities work through legal and technical barriers.
For Ireland, the latest recovery turns part of a long-frozen asset into BTC under state control. It also raises the chance that investigators may continue trying to access the remaining wallets tied to Collins.
