Some $30 million in cryptocurrency on the Malta cryptocurrency exchange that belonged to a murdered Turkish Cypriot casino boss has been seized upon a demand from the Turkish authorities as part of an investigation into an illegal gambling ring, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
The investigation into the gambling ring is being conducted by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
As part of the investigation, Turkish authorities issued detention warrants on Oct. 20 for 46 suspects and blocked the cryptocurrency accounts of 229 others as well as 11 companies that were involved in the transfer of money obtained from illegal gambling and sending it to cryptocurrency accounts owned by an Ankara-based criminal organization.
Among the 46 people detained, three were arrested, while the rest were released on judicial probation.
The authorities discovered that some of the money collected from illegal gambling in Turkey was sent to the cryptocurrency accounts of Halil Falyalı and his wife in the Malta cryptocurrency exchange.
“This operation came out of Turkish Cyprus and is linked to the murder of Halil Falyalı,” Turkish Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu said last month when the operation became public.
Falyalı, who owned several casinos and hotels in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC), a self-proclaimed state on the predominantly Turkish side of Cyprus, died in an attack that took place in front of his house in Kyrenia.
As part of the same operation, $40 million in cryptocurrency was also confiscated in Turkey and abroad last month.
Falyalı came to public attention in Turkey in May 2021, when notorious Turkish mob boss Sedat Peker had alleged while exposing the Turkish government’s involvement in international cocaine trafficking that the drug was being shipped to Turkey from Venezuela and then to the Middle East on luxury yachts, while the profits were laundered in the KKTC by Falyalı.
Falyalı, who was alleged to have had shady relations with Turkish government figures, owned several casinos and hotels in the KKTC including Les Ambassadeurs Hotel & Casino, one of the island’s most luxurious.