Officer handed over information and created false documents for crypto transferred via the dark web.

According to reports in several French newspapers, a police officer assigned to the country’s Direction Générale de la Sécurité Intérieure (DGSI) – a division of the French intelligence services – has been charged with selling state secrets over the dark web in exchange for cryptocurrency.

The as-yet-unnamed officer was taken into custody late last week in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), a western suburb of Paris, on suspicion of sharing confidential police files with members of organised crime groups and those looking for sensitive business information. They are also suspected of producing false documents to order.

Apparently, since the arrest – which was achieved by monitoring access to confidential files accessed by the individual, which leaves a unique coded trail on the directorate’s computers system – there have been further arrests by immigration officials related to certain people the officer was working for. No terrorist link is suspected.

It is not know how much the individual received for their nefarious work, but they could now face seven years in prison and a fine in the region of 100,000 euros.

Despite the continued efforts of cryptocurrency’s big players to shake off its reputation as a criminal’s currency, stories like this continue to catch the eye when they come up.