NCA officer jailed for raiding criminal’s Bitcoin wallet

A former National Crime Agency (NCA) officer has been jailed after he stole and hid 50 Bitcoin that had been seized in a criminal investigation into the dark web

Paul Chowles, 42, from Bristol worked as an operational officer with the NCA when he stole 50 Bitcoin from a criminal investigation he was working on. When he stole the Bitcoin in 2017 they were worth £60,000 but with recent booms in cryptocurrency the value rose to £4.4m.

In total the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) believe Chowles benefitted financially by £613,147.29 in total.

The investigation Chowles was working on was related to the dark web selling platform, Silk Road 1, which was shut down after a joint investigation between the NCA and the FBI in the US.

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