Israel’s defense establishment just days ago seized millions of dollars in cryptocurrency belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force and Hezbollah, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced Tuesday night.
The defense minister said that this was the largest seizure of cryptocurrency from those groups to date.
The IRGC Quds Force is Iran’s elite intelligence agency for terror, spying and fomenting unrest overseas and Hezbollah in Lebanon is one of its main proxies.
Cryptocurrency funds used to finance terror, Gallant says
Cryptocurrency has been a boon to terror groups and other illegal organizations as it allows them to avoid stricter banking regulations and tracking mechanisms.
The defense minister confirmed that the funds were specifically designated to be used for terror purposes.
He said that the Defense Ministry’s division for economic warfare against terror worked closely with the Mossad, IDF intelligence, the police and other authorities (the Justice Ministry has a special division for combating terror financing) has worked on utilizing new technological tools to track terror financiers new techniques for trying to conceal their movement of funds.
Gallant said Israel would continue its constant fight against Iran and other terror financing outfits.