Avon and Somerset Police said on Aug. 27 that its Financial Investigation Unit had recovered 20.21 BTC, other digital assets and bank-account funds valued at £1,032,487.86, or more than $1.4 million. Investigators, working with the force’s cyber team, traced the holdings to unnamed darknet marketplaces that operated from 2016 to 2019 and have since been shut down by law enforcement, platforms the force said facilitated crimes from drug distribution to human trafficking. The unnamed person at the centre of the case had previously been convicted of money laundering and has since died. Earlier in 2026 a court forfeited the assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act after accepting they were proceeds of unlawful conduct. The haul is the force’s largest cryptocurrency recovery since UK crypto wallet freezing powers took effect in April 2024. At Bitcoin’s price of about $77,570 when reported, the 20.21 BTC alone would be worth roughly $1.57 million, with any gap from the police total likely reflecting the valuation date. Recovered funds may support education, training, early intervention and crime-prevention work.