Former National Crime Agency officer stole bitcoin from dark web drug dealer

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A former National Crime Agency officer who stole Bitcoin seized from the operator of an illegal dark web marketplace has been jailed for five-and-a-half years.

The NCA was investigating the Silk Road 2.0 site – which allowed users to buy drugs and other illicit goods after the original Silk Road was shut down by the FBI in 2013 – and arrested Liverpool-based Thomas White in 2014.

Intelligence officer Paul Chowles took the details of Whites “retirement wallet” and stole 50 Bitcoin before sending it to a cryptocurrency “mixing” service called Bitcoin Fog to obscure the source, prosecutors said.

Chowles, 42, appeared in Liverpool Crown Court having pleaded guilty to one count of theft, one count of transferring criminal property, and one count of concealing criminal property.

Prosecutor Craig Hassall said the Bitcoin Chowles stole was worth just under £60,000 (around US$80,000) at the time of the theft in May 2017 and is now worth over £4 million, though Chowles had realised nearly £145,000.

Chowles was dismissed by the NCA this month for gross misconduct after his guilty pleas, having been arrested in 2022.

Prosecutor Craig Hassall said the Bitcoin Chowles stole was worth just under £60,000 at the time of the theft in May 2017 and is now worth over £4 million, though Chowles had realised nearly £145,000

The NCA initially thought White, who was jailed in 2019 for over five years, had managed to access his Bitcoin wallet and remove the 50 missing Bitcoin, Hassall said.

The remaining 47 Bitcoin in Whites wallet were sold by the NCA for roughly £500,000, and the funds paid towards a 1.5 million-pound confiscation order made against White.

But police and the NCA began to investigate after White said he was not responsible for moving the 50 Bitcoin, and usernames and passwords linked to White‘s cryptocurrency accounts were found in Chowles’ notebooks when he was arrested.

Judge David Aubrey said Bitcoin worth nearly £470,000 was seized from Chowles, telling him: “Had you not been arrested, you would have continued to reap the rewards of your wrongdoing.”

Detective Chief Inspector John Black, from Merseyside Polices Force Intelligence Bureau, said: We know criminals have sought to use cryptocurrency as a way to launder money from illegal activities including drug dealing and fraud.

It will be extremely disappointing to everyone that someone involved in law enforcement could involve themselves in the very criminality they are tasked with investigating and preventing.

This case should illustrate in the starkest terms that nobody is above the law. When it became clear that one of the NCAs own officers had stolen Bitcoin, our officers conducted extensive enquiries to unearth a trail of evidence that Chowles had attempted to hide. This was supported fully by the NCA.

He took advantage of his position on this investigation to line his own pockets while devising a plan that he believed would cover his tracks. He was wrong.

I want to reassure the public that Merseyside Police have specialist officers with the experience and expertise to track the movement of funds designed to avoid detection.

“Above all, our officers have the determination to make sure criminals do not profit in any way from breaking the law while other honest and hard-working members of the public work to provide for their families.”