In Illinois, a judge has ruled that a woman suspected of hiring a Dark web hitman must wear a GPS monitoring device, pending the result of her trial. The woman, who has been named as Tina Jones from Des Plaines, stands accused of, “four counts of solicitation of murder for hire, two counts of solicitation of murder and attempted first-degree murder in a plot to have her former lover’s wife killed”, according to the Daily Herald’s report from the same day.
Her attorney, Stephen Hall, moved to have the GPS tag order reversed though, citing the ongoing expense of the tracker – $10 per day – as being a strain on his client:
“Ms. Jones would otherwise request that all other conditions of bond remain in effect, including that she be required to stay within the state of Georgia unless traveling to Illinois for the court, and then she may only stay within Illinois for 24 hours. This court can be fairly assured of Ms. Jones continued compliance because of the support of her family, her performance while on release thus far, and other factors to be discussed with this court.”
However, the request was denied, and Ms. Jones will return to court in mid-February as the trial continues. If found guilty of paying more than $10,000 in Bitcoin to order the murder of a social worker, she could face up to 40 years in jail.
One of the main detractors for investment bigwigs and regulators when it comes to Bitcoin truly making its way into the mainstream has always been anonymity. Of course, with the Dark Web being the shady underground of the Internet, it is only natural that it goes hand in hand with crypto use. So, the more privacy that a cryptocurrency bills itself as having, the more it is likely to be used in crime.
A good example of this is Monero, which has become the unwanted face of money laundering, drug trafficking and more. However, the larger cryptos by market cap are still very popular, as they are easier to transfer in bulk.
Indeed, back in October, CCN reported that a drug dealer known as ‘OxyMonster’ had been sentenced to a 20—year prison term, having been found guilty of money laundering and narcotics trafficking, and having been found with over $700,000 in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.
And while cryptocurrencies themselves are becoming more secure, and exchanges are becoming less easy to hack, the size of the Dark web remains nothing more than an estimate.
A jumble for governments and regulating bodies is that, while it is clearly positive that cryptocurrencies are developing and improving, the level of anonymity makes them a clear means of funding for online criminal enterprises. However, the active crypto community may well take matters into their own hands and work to find a solution to the problem, if they believe that the negative publicity caused by these crimes could genuinely affect the success of crypto long-term.
