UK street gang launders drug funds with memecoin, report
A UK street gang involved in fraud, drug dealing, and extortion is paying people to launch OneCoin-style memecoins and “dump” on their investors in order to launder illicit profits.
Expert witness and drug crime specialist Gary Carroll, who revealed the memecoin laundering scheme to The Daily Mail, claimed that “mid-level” members of one particular gang are launching memecoins and have hundreds of thousands of pounds to fund it.
Neither The Daily Mail nor Carroll were willing to reveal the memecoin in question in order to protect the identity of Carroll’s sources.
He did, however, say that the gang is “not a household name,” while the paper conceded that the coin in question bears a “passing resemblance” to OneCoin, the billion-dollar crypto pyramid scheme that spawned a worldwide manhunt.
Read more: Andrew Tate struggles to pump memecoin amid Florida criminal inquiry
The plot is active, according to The Mail, and the gang, which has international connections, also participates in the selling of counterfeit goods and cigarettes.
Carroll also suggested that launching memecoins may become more widespread among gangs looking to launder funds, due to the simplicity of the launch process.
“In one or maybe two years time, there will be cases in court, I’m confident about that,” he said, adding that it may become a common method for gangs to “semi-legitimise their trade.”
The world’s largest memecoin launcher, Pump Fun, which has created a sizeable following based on launching and trading memecoins with ease, is currently being sued by Burwick Law. The firm claims that Pump Fun is “a magnet for terrorist financing, drug trafficking, and other transnational crimes” and has failed to follow anti-money laundering regulations.
The firm continues to dominate the memecoin market while a recent report suggests that it’s suffering from a widespread “memecoin sniper” problem.
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