The International Criminal Police Organisation or Interpol is planning to set up a specialised division to tackle crimes related to cryptocurrency.
According to a Business Standard report, the agency has already set up such a team in Singapore to help the authorities fight crimes related to virtual assets.
Interpol secretary general Jürgen Stock, who is in India for the four-day Interpol general assembly, said the absence of clear laws for cryptocurrencies is a major challenge for law enforcement agencies and pointed out that such agencies are not often equipped to deal with crimes involving cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
The four-day Interpol general assembly will focus on cryptocurrency and cybercrime, he said.
The investigating agency has been training its police officers to deal with cybercrimes and cryptocurrency crimes since 2015.
Stock had recently said less than one per cent of the global illicit financial flows are intercepted and the fact that 99 per cent of stolen assets remain in criminal hands should be of "greater concern" for everyone.
"Combined with the estimates of the global cost of cyber crime, which is expected to reach USD 10.5 trillion by 2025, it brings us to the basics of policing follow the money."
Interpol has developed its global stop-payment mechanism, the Anti-Money Laundering Rapid Response Protocol, which in the last 10 months alone has helped the member countries recover more than $60 million in criminal proceeds from cyber-enabled fraud, he had said.
—With PTI inputs
