A drug dealer who stashed almost £5 million pounds in crypto currency will be forced to hand it over to authorities. 

Simon Barclay, 42, was brought to Leeds Crown Court under the proceeds of crime act. 

It marks the largest ever seizure of cryptocurrency by West Yorkshire Police’s Economic Crime Unit. 

Barclay’s benefit figure was judged to be £7.1 million, with the disparity remaining as a debt against him.

Barclay, formerly of Cow Cliffe Road, Huddersfield, was jailed for nine years after pleading guilty to different offences, including money laundering and possession of Class A and B drugs, in 2022.

Barclay, who was caught with £1.2 million worth of cocaine as well as heroin, was judged to have crypto currencies collectively worth £4,921,637 available.

This has already been converted back to Great British Pounds to pay the confiscation order. 

Aside from the confiscation, Barclay was also made subject of a five year Serious Crime Prevention Order at Thursday’s hearing.

This order will begin on his release from prison. 

DCI Lee Townley, head of the force’s Economic Crime Unit, said: “This confiscation is the largest cryptocurrency seizure to date by West Yorkshire Police.

“This very large seizure makes plain that no matter how criminals try to conceal their ill-gotten gains, we have the specialist investigators in West Yorkshire to deal with it.
“Barclay’s offending, distributing Class A drugs into our communities, is a deplorable offence which preys on the most vulnerable in our society. 

“Barclay has made huge sums of money from these offences whilst the hard working and law abiding public are struggling to make ends meet. 

“Most criminals are committing offences to generate money quickly.  West Yorkshire Police’s Economic Crime Unit is dedicated to ensuring crime does not pay.”

Barclay was brought to justice as part of a joint investigation by the Kirklees District Programme Precision Team, West Yorkshire Police’s Economic Crime Unit and the Yorkshire & Humber Regional Cyber Crime Unit (RCCU).

His criminal activity first came to light after his use of the dark web was monitored by the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU) which, along with the RCCU, is part of the UK DICE, the UK national response to darkweb criminality.

They contacted the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Cyber Crime Unit and Kirklees Precision who then began to probe further into his suspected criminality in a joint operation.

He was monitored making regular drops to a local post office from addresses linked to him and was arrested by Kirklees Programme Precision Officers in November 2021.

A subsequent search of his properties and computer equipment led officers to recover the drugs and crypto currency.

Ramona Senior, head of the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Economic and Cyber Crime Unit, said: “Barclay used 21st century technology to run his large scale drugs supply network.  Ironically though, it was his attempts to stay hidden by using the dark web which brought him to our attention.

“The scale of the order made against Barclay should serve as a deterrent to others involved in similar activities.”