The man behind Sheep Marketplace, a missing Darknet center, now faces new positions after supposedly channeling $ 45 million in Bitcoin to Czech officials in the Ministry of Justice. Prosecutors confirm that the investigation covers money laundering and illegal drug operations, indicating a complex criminal network.
Summary
- Czech police arrest Tomáš Jiřikovský, former Darknet operator, more than a Bitcoin donation of $ 45 million linked to the Ministry of Justice.
- The authorities investigate money laundering and illegal donation -related drug operations.
- Former Justice Minister Pavel Blažek resigned in June in the middle of the scandal.
According to a place report De Deník N, the Czech police broke into the Břeclav residence in Tomáš Jiřikovský on Thursday night, stopping the drug trafficker after an escape attempt on the roof. The raid continued months of scrutiny in a 468 bitcoin (BTC) Donation, with a value of approximately $ 45 million at that time, that Jiřikovský allegedly made the Ministry of Justice earlier this year.
The main state prosecutor, Radim Dragoun, confirmed that the operation went to money laundering suspicions and narcotics trafficking, and the investigators took tests linked to both the donation and the past Darknet of Jiřikovský.
From Darknet’s profits to political influence: unpaid Jiřikovský’s bitcoin scheme
The arrest of Tomáš Jiřikovský represents more than another Darknet operator against justice. He exposes how illegal cryptographic wealth tried to infiltrate the highest levels of Czech governance.
According to the judicial documents of his 2017 judgment, Jiřikovský accumulated his Bitcoin fortune through the sheep market, an underground platform that facilitated more than 680 BTC in drug sales before closing it abruptly in 2013. In a successful exit scam, supposedly it was sympholated an additional 841 BTC of the user’s accounts Later in his war funds that would later be a political funds.
A conviction that did not stick
Despite receiving a nine -year prison sentence in 2017 for embezzlement, drug trafficking and illegal possession of weapons, Jiřikovský only served half of his mandate before being released on probation in 2021.
The donation of 468 BTC, drawn by blockchain analysts for wallets linked to Nuleus Marketplace, another Darknet operation, reached a politically sensitive moment. With the approach of the national elections, the scandal has become the most harmful crisis of Prime Minister Petr Fiala, undermining public trust in the ruler ODS party.
The consequences and the failed cover -up
The June resignation of former Minister of Justice, Pavel Blažek, marked only the beginning of the political earthquake. His successor, Eva Decroix, commissioned the Audit Firm Grant Thornton to investigate the donation, a measure that revealed condemnatory conclusions.
The audit determined that the ministry “should not have accepted Bitcoin’s donation” due to clear red flags over its criminal origins. More explosively, he suggested that ministry officials may have violated the laws against money laundering when processing the transaction.
