Brazil’s public security agencies have a new weapon for fighting organized crime after national legislators approved a measure allowing them to use confiscated cryptocurrency in their efforts.

On Wednesday, Brazil’s legislative branch published Law No. 15.358, establishing a legal framework for combating organized crime. The law allows authorities to prohibit transactions on crypto exchanges by treating digital assets as instruments in a crime, and confiscate crypto to be used to fund public security.

“For the purposes of forfeiture of assets, any asset that has been used to commit a crime shall be considered an instrument of the crime, even if it was not intended exclusively for that purpose,” said a translation of the law, which…