South Korean police have arrested and indicted four Uzbek nationals, accusing them of using cryptocurrency to fund a UN-designated terrorist organization, the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency said Monday.
The four were arrested in April on suspicion of violating South Korea's Anti-Terrorism Financing Act. Among them is an alleged ringleader who had previously been the subject of an Interpol Red Notice. Police said the main suspect sent a total of 4,267 USDT to Katibat al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (KTJ) in seven transactions carried out between August 2024 and April 2025.
Police also allege that the suspect received cryptocurrency from KTJ, then spent that money on 11 used cars and two excavators worth about 170 million won ($121,000). Those vehicles and pieces of equipment were later shipped to Syria. The other three suspects, police say, helped with the procurement and export process.
South Korean police said earlier terrorism financing cases had mostly been about one-way transfers to terror groups. But this, they said, is the first case in which they found a circular flow: crypto coming from a terror group and then being turned into physical goods. The main suspect rejects the allegations, saying the money went to household expenses and that he did not know who the real buyer of the vehicles was.