South Korea Arrests Four Over Crypto Payments to Syrian Terror Group

South Korean police have charged four Uzbek nationals with financing terrorism, in a case they say is the first to involve crypto flowing out of a designated terrorist group and back as physical goods.

The Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency’s security investigation division arrested the four in April under the Act on Prohibition Against the Financing of Terrorism, and disclosed the case on Tuesday, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily. The alleged ringleader has been indicted and detained and is on trial, while the other three are under investigation without detention. One of the four was wanted on an Interpol Red Notice.

Between August 2024 and April 2025, police say the ringleader sent 4,267 USDT across seven transfers to Katibat Tawhid wal Jihad.

KTJ is a Syria-based group formed in 2014 largely from Central Asian fighters, and has been designated as a terrorist organization by both the United Nations and the United States.

Crypto flows back and forth

The group’s ringleader is accused of taking cryptocurrency from KTJ and spending it on 11 used cars and two excavators, worth a combined 170 million won ($121,000), which were then shipped to Syria. The other three suspects allegedly helped buy and export the vehicles.

“Previous terrorism-related cases involved sending funds to terrorist groups, but this is the first case of receiving funds from a terrorist group and purchasing and supplying vehicles in return,” police said.

Investigators say the ringleader rotated between three personal wallets, had payments for the cars deposited into an account in his spouse’s name, and presented someone else’s driver’s licence when officers detained him. He entered South Korea in 2017 on a student visa, graduated from a university in Daejeon, and had been living in the country as an overstayer since 2023.

He denied the main charges at his first hearing in June, saying the money was sent to cover family living expenses and that he did not know who was buying the vehicles. He also said a younger sibling had joined KTJ only for self-protection, amid violence against Uzbeks in Syria.

Police said the investigation led to the arrest of a second Interpol Red Notice suspect and is continuing.