A Detective’s Journey from Street Patrol to Chasing Stolen Crypto
How an assignment with the DEA led to Detective Scott Simons becoming one of the nation’s go-to crypto tracers and the investigative lead for Operation Shamrock’s Crypto Coalition.
Episode 67: Scott Simons has spent nearly 25 years at the Greenfield Police Department outside Milwaukee. His career took an unusual turn in 2015 when he opened one of the earliest cyber drug-trafficking cases in the history of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. He taught himself to trace cryptocurrency and navigate the dark web to investigate cases that spanned Miami, Argentina, and Albania.
Scott’s self-taught expertise now anchors his role leading Operation Shamrock’s law enforcement triage team, where he has personally worked on or overseen hundreds of crypto fraud cases. Erin and Scott trace his path from beat cop to one of the country’s most trusted resources for tracing stolen crypto.
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From Street Patrol to the Ground Floor of Crypto Crime
Scott began his law enforcement career in an era when financial crime meant forged paper checks. After eight or nine years in uniform, he was promoted to detective and settled into narcotics work.
In 2013, Simons joined a DEA task force for an unusually long 10-year posting. He started with street-level buys before pushing into unfamiliar territory: purchasing drugs from clear-net websites, then opening one of the DEA’s earliest cyber drug trafficking cases, despite his colleagues warning the government lacked resources to support it. With no formal training available, he taught himself by combing Reddit, watching YouTube, and picking the brains of the very criminals he was chasing in online drug forums.
“I thought, let’s try buying drugs on the dark web. I had to teach myself a lot at that point. I actually remember the first cyber drug-trafficking case I wanted to open.” — Detective Scott Simons, Operation Shamrock
That case sent him overseas, coordinating operations and immersing him in international asset seizures and mutual legal-assistance treaties. He watched cryptocurrency migrate from a curiosity into the default payment rail for drug trafficking, tracking Bitcoin’s rise as one of a handful of investigators nationwide working these cases.
“When you’re posing as a drug buyer online, people in that world love to help each other. If I start saying, ‘Hey, I really want to start using cryptocurrency because I heard it’s safer,’ someone would completely walk me through the process.”
Leading Operation Shamrock’s Triage Team
Simons leads a team of roughly 30 volunteer law enforcement officers nationwide who respond to scam reports filed at operationshamrock.org. Victim reports route through partner platform Chainabuse directly to Simons, who works cases himself or assigns them to qualified investigators. Every victim hears back from a real investigator with follow-up questions, even when recovery is unlikely. The team’s charter is to trace stolen cryptocurrency, freeze funds, and support prosecution where possible. The team coordinates with the victim’s local or state law enforcement agencies, an estimated 90% of which still don't have the know-how or resources to handle crypto cases on their own.
“We can step in, trace the stolen funds for them, and walk them through how to freeze the funds, how to request records to figure out who the account belongs to.” — Detective Scott Simons
Success is never guaranteed. Funds move through crypto exchanges, swapping platforms, and mixing services designed to hide the trail. Some exchanges simply don’t cooperate with U.S. law enforcement. Timing and quick response matter, but not always predictably. Simons prioritizes recent cases, yet has traced and frozen funds that sat untouched for nearly two years, since large scam hauls can be difficult for criminals to launder quickly. In under two years, the triage team has helped more than 300 people, with Simons personally responsible for the largest share of successful recoveries and freezes, earning him a reputation as the group’s most effective investigator. (Recognition he humbly dismisses with phrases like, “I was in the right place at the right time.”)
“Law enforcement overall across the U.S. has done an amazing job over the last couple of years with additional training. There are more resources out there. We are doing better.” — Detective Scott Simons
Who Is Detective Scott Simons?
Scott Simons is an active Detective with the Greenfield Police Department (Milwaukee County), where he has been employed for 24 years. He is a member of the Midwest Cryptocurrency Task Force, Director of Investigations for Operation Shamrock, and owner of Criterion Training Solutions, where he teaches law enforcement, prosecutors, and financial investigators. Scott has investigated transnational drug trafficking and money laundering for 20 years of his law enforcement career, including 10 years as a federally deputized Task Force Agent with the DEA. During his tenure with the DEA, he focused on significant money laundering and cyber investigations domestically and overseas, resulting in the seizure of illicit assets valued at tens of millions of dollars, including millions in cryptocurrency. Scott has presented on cyber/crypto topics at conferences, DEA Headquarters, and to foreign law enforcement on behalf of the U.S. Department of State.
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