Indian Tax Intelligence Agency: Smugglers are abandoning Hawala in favor of stablecoins

According to Decrypt, the Indian Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) warned in its "2024-25 Annual Report on Smuggling in India" that cryptocurrencies and stablecoins are increasingly replacing the Hawala network as the primary means of transferring funds for drug and gold smuggling activities.

The report points out that digital assets, due to their "decentralization, anonymity, and borderless nature," provide smuggling groups with "faster anonymous settlements, minimal regulation, and weak anti-money laundering compliance." One case uncovered by the DRI revealed that a multinational gold smuggling group laundered over $12.7 million through Hawala and USDT. In this case, the mastermind used multiple crypto wallets to layer funds for anonymity and communicated via encrypted applications like WeChat using a VPN.