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"Europol carried out an urgent, complex crypto-analysis to enable the tracing and identification of the provider from which the suspect purchased the cryptocurrencies"
https://www.europol.europa.eu/newsroom/news/dark-web-hitman-identified-through-crypto-analysis
I don't think it was as easy as using the search engine, because you would not even know the BTC addresses of both parties. I suppose what they did was a combination of regular police job (=ask crypto exchanges for BTC addresses) and blockchain analysis.
@kravietz yep if you're going to do shady stuff you don't register to pay for crypto 😅
@kravietz so someone pays a policeman posing as a killer, and they were able to use a search engine to find the owner of a wallet from whom the coins were bought, or am I missing something?