Inside Operation Destabilise: How a ransomware investigation linked Russian money laundering and street-level drug dealing

The U.K. National Crime Agency's Operation Destabilise used blockchain analysis, covert operations, and physical interdictions to expose a Russian-speaking money-laundering ecosystem (Smart and TGR Group) that converted ransom and drug-cash into crypto and other assets via courier-managed cash-for-crypto networks; the probe linked hundreds of millions (potentially billions) in flows to transnational drug cartels, cybercrime gangs (Ryuk/Conti/Trickbot), Russian elites, and allegedly to funding of espionage activities, resulting in arrests and multiple seizures.