An Icelandic suspect in the recent theft of Bitcoin mining equipment has been arrested in Amsterdam. According to the police, Sindri Thor Stefansson is alleged to have masterminded a group of people for a major robbery of about 600 Bitcoin mining computers that are worth over $2 million. The suspect was arrested by the Dutch police on Sunday in the downtown of Amsterdam.
Stefansson is claimed to have successfully escaped from a low-security prison in Iceland to Sweden last week but he has denied the reports that he was jailed but instead he was just been held for police suspicion. According to reports, Stefansson used another man’s passport to fly from the country. He was caught in Amsterdam in the midst of the international arrest warrant and there are plans to deport him back to Iceland.
According to Stefansson, the police have violated his rights since has is not on any trial and the arrest warrant had already expired. He told the Icelandic publication Frettabladid.is that the police were holding him in Sogni prison in Iceland without any evidence and that he was free to travel following the expiry of the judge’s ruling in April 16.
Steffansson is among the 11 people arrested recently for a theft of computers that has occurred between December and January in Iceland. Stefansson is alleged to have been involved in a series of burglaries of the crypto mining hardware and had been detained since February in what is called ‘the largest criminal cases in the Icelandic history’. He has vowed to challenge his detention of two and half months at the European Court of Human Rights.
According to the country’s authorities, Stefansson is not a dangerous inmate. He only managed to escaped the prison facility, which was not properly fenced and inmates are allowed to use phones and internet. However, Stefansson stated that he feels shame for escaping the authorities but at the same time he was angry for being in prison for more than two months without any proof for being in the wrong.
