Tackling Crypto Crime: SPAK Prosecutors Sharpen Skills at UNODC Regional Centre for
Combating Cybercrime
Doha, Qatar, 23-25 June 2026. As cryptocurrencies continue to transform the global financial landscape, they are also creating new challenges as criminal networks increasingly use them to conceal illicit proceeds, move funds across borders, and exploit emerging technologies. To address these evolving threats, prosecutors and investigators require specialized skills that combine legal expertise with technical investigative techniques.
Recognizing this need, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) project office in Albania facilitated the participation of Albanian prosecutors and law enforcement officer from SPAK to a three-day training on Virtual Asset Tracing and Investigations training at the UNODC Regional Centre for Combating Cybercrime in Doha strengthening capacities to investigate crimes involving cryptocurrencies and other virtual assets.
The programme combined technical instruction with practical exercises, enabling participants to better understand how virtual assets function and how blockchain technology can be leveraged as an investigative tool. Through hands-on tracing exercises, participants learned how to identify suspicious transaction patterns, analyze blockchain data, attribute wallet addresses, and manually trace cryptocurrency transactions using open-source intelligence (OSINT).
The course also explored the critical role of cryptocurrency exchanges in criminal investigations. Participants examined anti-money laundering and know-your-customer (AML/KYC) compliance frameworks, investigative approaches for obtaining exchange-held information, and the legal and evidential considerations involved in requesting digital financial records across jurisdictions.
Real-world case studies allowed participants to apply newly acquired skills to realistic investigative scenarios, reinforcing both the technical and legal dimensions of virtual asset investigations.
By the conclusion of the training, participants had strengthened their capacity to:
Understand the structure, risks, and investigative implications of virtual asset ecosystems;
Conduct basic and advanced cryptocurrency tracing and blockchain analysis;
Detect suspicious transaction patterns and financial red flags;
Apply OSINT techniques to support financial and cybercrime investigations; and
Navigate the legal, regulatory, and evidential requirements associated with cryptocurrency-related cases.
This training forms part of UNODC's Regional Office for South-Eastern Europe's ongoing efforts to assist jurisdictions in responding to the rapidly evolving cybercrime landscape. Through practical, skills-based training and cross-border knowledge exchange, UNODC in collaboration with its Regional Centre for Combating Cybercrime in Doha continues to support criminal justice practitioners in developing the expertise needed to combat cyber-enabled crime and the misuse of virtual assets.
Doha, Qatar, 23-25 June 2026. As cryptocurrencies continue to transform the global financial landscape, they are also creating new challenges as criminal networks increasingly use them to conceal illicit proceeds, move funds across borders, and exploit emerging technologies. To address these evolving threats, prosecutors and investigators require specialized skills that combine legal expertise with technical investigative techniques.
