Police in Spain Say Bitcoin ATMs Expose Problems in Europe’s AML Laws

Law enforcement officials in Spain are arguing that a recent effort to break up a criminal organization — which utilized bitcoin ATMs — has exposed a gap in European anti-money laundering statutes

An international case led by Europol and Spain’s Civil Guard earlier this year uncovered the regulatory loopholes in crypto-related crimes in new AML regulations issued by the European Commission and that are set to be executed by next year, according to Bloomberg.

The criminal organization reportedly provided large-scale money laundering services using Bitcoin ATMs, which fall out of the current financial regulations, not covering either cash machines or cryptocurrency exchange platforms.

Civil Guard officials reportedly disclosed that the criminals obtained two ATMs machines from trading platforms and installed them in Madrid as part of a fake remittance and trading services office. After sending funds to the ATMs using exchanges, the group would then insert cash in…