NCA Insider Caught Swiping £4.4M in Silk Road Crypto—Trust Issues, Anyone?

Another day, another crypto scandal—this time with a side of irony.

UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) just got a taste of its own medicine when one of its own allegedly pocketed £4.4 million in seized Silk Road Bitcoin. Who watches the watchmen? Apparently not their accountants.

The Heist No One Saw Coming

While regulators hyperventilate about 'unsecured' DeFi protocols, a traditional law enforcement agency let millions walk out the back door. The NCA—tasked with dismantling darknet markets—somehow missed an insider quietly rerouting funds to a private wallet. Maybe they were too busy drafting another 'crypto risk' report.

Crypto’s Ultimate Plot Twist

The stolen stash originally came from Silk Road, the infamous dark web marketplace shut down over a decade ago. Now it’s funding a real-life crime thriller—starring the very institution meant to prevent such crimes. You can’t make this up.

Closing Thought

Banks get hacked. Exchanges collapse. And now, even the cops can’t keep their hands off the digital cookie jar. Maybe the real 'security risk' isn’t blockchain—it’s human nature. Meanwhile, your average Bitcoin hodler’s cold wallet just keeps humming along.

Using Chainalysis Reactor, investigators visualized the movement of the funds through various stages of laundering, eventually linking the transactions back to Chowles’s accounts. They also uncovered a “default wallet” holding about 30 BTC that had remained dormant for nearly five years. Private keys to this wallet were recovered from a device found during the police search of Chowles’s residence.

Chowles pleaded guilty in May 2025 to theft, transferring criminal property, and concealing criminal property. He was dismissed from the NCA shortly before sentencing.