Drug dealer loses £45m Bitcoin fortune after fishing gear he hid access codes in was taken to the dump
A DRUG dealer lost a £45million fortune when fishing gear containing Bitcoin access codes was taken to the dump.
Clifton Collins, 49, invested his illicit gains in the cryptocurrency during its early days.
He printed out the codes — the only way of accessing his 12 online accounts — and hid the piece of paper in a fishing rod case stashed at his rented home.
But he was jailed for five years in 2017 after cops stopped him with £1,600 of cannabis in his car and found £335,000 of plants at the property.
Following his arrest, there was a break-in at his home in Farnaught, Co Galway, Ireland.
And Collins’s landlord later cleared out the property and took his belongings to the dump.
Workers there said they remember seeing discarded fishing gear.
The waste is incinerated in Germany and China.
Last week the High Court in Dublin ruled that Collins had forfeited the accounts as they were proceeds from crime.
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However, he did not oppose the application as he no longer has any way of accessing the loot.
He had invested his drug money in 2011 when the cryptocurrency’s value jumped between £5 and £23 — but one bitcoin is now worth around £7,500.
Collins has told cops he has come to terms with the loss and considers it punishment for his stupidity.
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