Brazil Introduces New Intelligence Unit to Combat Cryptocurrency-Related Crimes

Due to the nature of cryptocurrency, crimes tied to this industry are difficult to detect or trace by traditional intelligence agencies. For this reason, some countries have channeled serious funding to special intelligence units to tackle new tech crimes. Brazil has become the latest of such countries.

The Southern American—which has had its fair share of crypto-related scams—recently announced the launch of a cryptocurrency-dedicated investigation unit called “Crypto.”

This unit is being put together by the public prosecution office of the Federal District of Brazil and is tasked with helping public prosecutors handle cryptocurrency cases. At the same time, the intelligence unit will educate crypto product consumers on the safe use of crypto assets or alert them of potential scams.

‘Crypto’ coordinator and public prosecutor, Frederico Meinberg, commented on the training procedure of agents, explaining:

“The best training for an agent dealing with digital assets is to interact with the market. Without practice, we can offer the best tools that, in the end, the agent will not know what to do with. That is why we always focus on the interaction of agents with the ecosystem, starting with exchanges and peer-to-peer sellers.”

Brazil’s ‘Crypto’ Unit Comes After US Cryptocurrency Bill

Meinberg refused to disclose the number of agents working under the unit, citing security reasons. Meinberg also explained that due to the nature of the crimes carried out in this industry, crypto investigations are more difficult to handle than traditional cases.

The creation of the crypto-focused investigation unit comes three months after the approval of the cryptocurrency bill by the Senate of Congress in the US. The crypto bill aims at snuffing cryptocurrency-related crimes in the US by putting a label on a new kind of crypto-related fraud and assigning jail time penalties of two to six years, depending on the crime committed.