Categories: Global Adoption

Digital Assets Enter Espionage: Israel Allegedly Used Crypto to Conceal its Hunt for Hamas in Turkey

Israel’s intelligence service has been accused of using crypto to recruit spies in Turkey as it seeks to track down and kidnap Palestinians living in the country, Turkish authorities claim. As reported by the Financial Times on Tuesday, Turkey’s interior minister Ali Yerlikay announced the detention of 34 people linked to Mossad following raids across the country. According to a senior Turkish official, suspects “were involved in reconnaissance, surveillance, assault, and kidnapping operations and/or plots targeting foreign nationals in [Turkey] on Mossad’s behalf.” Reuters reports that the Turkish official claims that recruits were paid by Mossad through intermediaries, live couriers, and crypto so that funds couldn’t be traced back to the agency. In addition, the official said that job listings posted online asked recruits to photograph targets, plant cars with GPS devices, and assist Israeli agents “for their ultimate mission.” Mossad reportedly trained suspects abroad and kept regular contact with them via encrypted messaging platforms. The raids were conducted by the country’s government counter-terrorism and intelligence agencies, and it’s reported that €150,000 ($165,100), an unlicensed firearm, and ‘digital materials’ were seized. Tensions between Turkey and Israel have escalated following the war in Gaza. Last month, Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Israel would “pay a very, very heavy price” if it attempts to assassinate Hamas members in Turkey, as it does not consider them terrorists.
Terron Gold

Recent Posts

Cypherpunk Launches World’s Largest Zcash Mining Fleet in $33 Million Winklevoss Deal

Cypherpunk Technologies is expanding its massive bet on Zcash by launching what it calls the…

5 days ago

MapleStory Universe Launches AI Game Jam With $15,000 in NXPC Prizes

MapleStory Universe is putting artificial intelligence in the hands of game creators with the launch…

5 days ago

Kalshi Pushes Beyond Prediction Markets With Copper Perpetual Future Filing With CFTC

Kalshi is making another major move beyond prediction markets, filing with the Commodity Futures Trading…

6 days ago

Coinbase Brings 50x Crypto Perpetual Trading to Base App Through Hyperliquid

Coinbase is bringing high-leverage decentralized derivatives directly into its Base App through an integration with…

6 days ago

Hong Kong Puts First Regulated Stablecoin to Work in Insurance and $49 Billion UAE Trade Market

Hong Kong's first regulated Hong Kong dollar stablecoin is moving beyond testing and into real-world…

6 days ago

Fake Trezor, Ledger and Exodus Apps Target Crypto Users in Massive Seed Phrase Scam

Cybersecurity researchers at Rapid7 have uncovered a sophisticated crypto fraud operation that used nearly 885,000…

7 days ago