The court banned the “British Pablo Escobar” from using bitcoin

A British court has permanently banned Liverpool resident Curtis Warren, known as the “British Pablo Escobar”, from using bitcoin and the WhatsApp messenger.

Curtis Warren, 59, was the most wanted criminal on the Interpol list. The man previously served a 12-year prison sentence in the Netherlands after £125m worth of drugs and weapons were confiscated from him (about £$142m). He received another 4 years in prison after killing his cellmate. In 2009, Warren was found guilty of conspiracy to smuggle marijuana and was later sentenced to another 13 years in prison. 

He even featured on the Sunday Times rich list, as his weekly illegal earnings totaled £15m (about £$17m).

Soon Warren should be released, however, according to the decision of the British court, he is forever prohibited from making transactions with bitcoin and investing in this cryptocurrency. The use of the WhatsApp instant messaging application is also prohibited for him. In addition, Warren is required to notify the appropriate authorities a week in advance of his travel abroad to Scotland.

The government often associates bitcoin with illegal activities. This is one of the reasons why regulators are demanding tighter oversight of cryptocurrencies in order to reduce the number of unscrupulous market participants.

According to a study conducted by Chainalysis in 2019, 95% of crimes related to cryptocurrencies were in bitcoin. However, a few years later, attackers began to use DOGE more often for fraud and terrorist financing, Elliptic analysts said.