UK NCA officer jailed for stealing bitcoin from darknet criminal he previously helped investigate

A former officer with Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has been jailed after stealing bitcoin from a darknet drugs trafficker whom he helped investigate.

Paul Chowles, 42, was on Wednesday sentenced to five and a half years in prison by Liverpool Crown Court after previously pleading guilty to theft, transferring criminal property and concealing criminal property.

Chowles had contributed to a joint investigation by the NCA and the FBI into the Silk Road marketplace which led to the arrest of Thomas White, a man from Liverpool, who launched Silk Road 2.0 shortly after the FBI shut down the original in 2013.

Read more at The Record