it is the first time Cab (Criminal Assets Bureau) has been able to access any of 12 virtual wallets – containing 6,000 bitcoin valued at €360 million – which were seized seven years ago.

The codes to the virtual wallets were lost, having been stored in a fishing rod case, locking out gardaí. Now, one of the wallets has been opened, raising the prospect all of the bitcoin can now be accessed. This could lead to their sale, which would dwarf the value of assets usually seized and sold by Cab.

I am very curious what they did to crack the wallet. Do the Irish police have z quantum computer?!?!

the bureau has effectively been sitting on the asset, hoping advances in technology would lead to the 12 wallets being unlocked. During that period, the value of the seized bitcoin has soared to €360 million.

They were forced hodlers for 7 years. You'd think someone might suggest hanging on to their stolen property even longer.

Apparently, the police stole the Bitcoin from a beekeeper.

Collins – a 55-year-old former beekeeper – grew cannabis crops in rented houses and sold the harvested drug to criminals, including in his native Crumlin, Dublin. He was jailed for five years.

He invested some of the proceeds of his drugs business in bitcoin, when it was worth only a fraction of its current value, in 2011 and 2012.

Guy sounds like a cool fellow. Leave it to the cops to come in and destroy everything.

As the virtual currency increased in value, Collins decided it would be safer to disperse his growing fortune across multiple virtual wallets that hold the cryptocurrency. He created 12 wallets for storing the bitcoin and recorded the codes, or digital keys, for each in a document.

He then hid the document in a fishing rod case at one of his rented properties in Co Galway. In interviews with gardaí he claimed he never saw the case again after a break-in at his home. However, a clear-out of the property after his arrest may also have resulted in the loss of the document.