The Irish Criminal Assets Bureau has seized an additional 500 BTC in the case of Clifton Collins, classifying the assets as proceeds from criminal activity.
This batch marks the third successful recovery from 12 Bitcoin wallets that originally held 6,000 BTC. The funds were deemed inaccessible due to lost keys.
In March, Irish authorities accessed 500 BTC, followed by another 500 BTC in May.
The operation was conducted with the assistance of the European Cybercrime Centre of Europol. The agency clarified that it provided investigators and analysts with "highly specialized technical information and resources for decryption."
In 2020, Collins was convicted of cultivating cannabis at home. In addition to a five-year prison sentence, the court ordered the confiscation of all his crypto assets.
The convicted individual began investing in Bitcoin in 2011-2012. He personally transferred a portion of the funds (around 89 BTC) but claimed to have lost access codes to most of the wallets holding the coins.
Collins had hidden the private keys in a rented house inside a fishing tackle box, but they disappeared after cleaning or a search. Since then, law enforcement has been gradually attempting to "crack" the wallets.
According to Arkham Intelligence, approximately 4,500 BTC (around $277 million at the time of writing) is stored at addresses marked Clifton Collins. This indicates that nine of the original 12 wallets remain unsolved.
Source: Arkham.It is worth noting that in January 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice completed the seizure of assets worth over $400 million related to the dark web crypto mixer Helix.