Ireland's Criminal Assets Bureau recovered 500 BTC from a third wallet around July 2, with bitcoin trading near $61,749, bringing the agency's total recovery to 1,500 BTC. The bureau accessed the wallet with technical support from Europol's European Cybercrime Centre, marking the third breakthrough in a case tied to Clifton Collins, a Dublin man convicted in 2017 for running an indoor cannabis operation. The recovery is part of an ongoing effort to confiscate roughly 6,000 BTC Collins purchased in late 2011 and early 2012, most of which remains locked after he lost the private keys when a landlord discarded a fishing rod case containing the printed passwords.
CAB Recovers 500 BTC From Third Wallet
The bureau accessed three of 12 wallets tied to Collins, each holding roughly 500 BTC. The latest breach happened around July 2, with the newest tranche valued at about $30.9 million. Combined with recoveries in March and May, also roughly 500 BTC each, the running total from the case sits at 1,500 BTC. CAB reported the news on its social media channels on Thursday.
CAB has not disclosed the technical method behind the wallet access, standard practice during an active case. Officials credit Europol with hosting meetings in The Hague and supplying the decryption resources that made the breach possible.
Collins Operated Cannabis Grow Sites Across Three Counties
According to an in-depth report from the Irish Times published in 2020, Collins worked as a security guard and later as a beekeeper before shifting to cannabis cultivation full-time around 2005. He rented grow sites in Cornamona, Kells, and Drumlish, harvesting roughly every 16 weeks and selling to dealers in Dublin.
A Garda patrol spotted his Lexus parked in the Wicklow Mountains at 2:30 a.m. on February 7, 2017. A search turned up cannabis worth about €2,000. That stop led investigators to his Galway property, where they found more than 500 plants worth roughly €406,000.
Collins bought about 6,000 BTC in late 2011 and early 2012, when bitcoin traded for a few dollars a coin. He split the holdings across 12 wallets and printed the private keys on paper. Collins served part of a five-year sentence under the Misuse of Drugs Act, with a portion of the term suspended. During interviews with CAB, Collins reportedly attributed his cannabis operation to what he called "stupidity" and "addiction."
Private Keys Lost When Landlord Cleared Rental Property
Collins hid the printed private keys inside the aluminum cap of a fishing rod case at his rental property. After his arrest, the landlord cleared the property and sent the contents to a landfill. The fishing rod case went with them. Collins told CAB investigators he lost access to the bulk of his bitcoin.
A High Court order around 2019 confirmed the holdings as proceeds of crime and directed their confiscation, even though CAB could not yet move the coins. Collins had already surrendered smaller amounts of bitcoin with recoverable keys, along with other assets, including a gyroplane, a fishing boat, and a camper van, netting the state about €1.2 million years before the larger wallets became relevant.
Onchain records show no activity from the wallets between Collins' 2017 arrest and the first recovery in March 2026. CAB officials have described the years of holding a confiscation order on an asset they could not touch as its own kind of frustration.
Nine Wallets Holding 4,500 BTC Remain Locked
Nine of the 14 wallets, holding an estimated 4,500 BTC, remain outside CAB's reach. At current prices, that stash is worth more than $275 million. The bureau still controls the wallets under the existing confiscation order and continues working to access them.
Onchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence has tracked the cluster under labels referencing Collins and his lost keys, flagging each new movement as it happens. Recovered coins have moved to institutional custody for management ahead of eventual liquidation.
Before this case, CAB had sold roughly €6.5 million worth of cryptocurrency across all prior cases over a decade. The Collins recoveries already dwarf that figure, and a full recovery of the original 6,000 BTC would rank among the largest crypto forfeitures by any law enforcement agency in Ireland.
FAQ
How much bitcoin did Ireland's CAB recover from the third wallet?
Ireland's Criminal Assets Bureau recovered 500 BTC from a third wallet around July 2, with bitcoin trading near $61,749, valuing the tranche at about $30.9 million. Combined with recoveries in March and May, the bureau's total recovery now stands at 1,500 BTC.
Why did Clifton Collins lose access to most of his bitcoin?
Collins printed the private keys on paper and hid them inside the aluminum cap of a fishing rod case at his rental property. After his 2017 arrest, the landlord cleared the property and sent the contents, including the fishing rod case, to a landfill, causing Collins to lose access to the bulk of his 6,000 BTC holdings.
How much bitcoin remains locked in the case?
Nine of the 14 wallets, holding an estimated 4,500 BTC, remain outside CAB's reach. At current prices, that stash is worth more than $275 million, and the bureau continues working to access them under an existing confiscation order.
