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A top-secret communications system used by criminals to exchange drugs and weapons has been “successfully penetrated,” says the National Crime Agency.
The NCA worked with forces across Europe in the UK’s “largest and most important” police operation.
The main crime figures were among 746 arrests across Europe after messages on EncroChat were intercepted and decoded.
More than two tons of drugs, several dozen weapons and £ 54 million in suspected cash have been seized, says the NCA.
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NCA
Armed property raids resulted in more than 700 arrests across Europe
Officers are said to have prevented people from being killed after covertly monitoring the planned attacks and threats to life on the encrypted service.
The NCA says the Europe-wide operation, which lasted more than three months and involved police forces across the UK, has had the biggest impact on organized crime gangs it has ever seen.
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Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick, whose force made 132 arrests and confiscated £ 13.3 million in cash, described it as a “game changer.”
She said: “This is just the beginning. We will disrupt organized criminal networks as a result of these operations for weeks and months and possibly years to come.”
‘Criminal market’
An estimated 60,000 people, including up to 10,000 in Britain, subscribed to France-based EncroChat, which has now been withdrawn.
The system worked with custom Android phones and, according to its website, provided “worry-free secure communications.”
Clients had access to features such as self-destructing messages that were removed from the recipient’s device after a certain period of time.
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Essex Police
Banknotes seized by Essex police during the operation
There was also a panic deletion, where all data on the device could be deleted by entering a four-digit code from the lock screen.
The NCA says the messaging system has been used as a “criminal market” to coordinate the supply of Class A drugs worldwide and import weapons, including assault rifles, machine guns, shotguns, pistols and hand grenades.
Law enforcement agencies began obtaining data from the site on April 1 after the encryption code is believed to have been decrypted in March.
Gangs are also believed to have used the portable devices to plan attacks on rival groups, plan ways to enforce drug debts, and organize money laundering.
Threats to life detailed at the site included acid attacks and threats to cut limbs.
Dozens of organized crime groups have been dismantled, says the NCA, with most of the arrests in London and northwest England.
Lockdown “worked in our favor,” the agency says, since many more suspects were at home when they were searched.
Many of those arrested are said to form the “middle tier” of criminal gangs, while some are described as the “Mr. and Mrs. Bigs” of the underworld.
Chat users realized ‘too late’
Analysis by BBC technology reporter David Molloy
EncroChat sold encrypted phones with a guarantee of anonymity, with a range of special features to remove identifying information. The phones cost approximately £ 900 (€ 1,000) each, with a subscription that costs £ 1,350 (€ 1,500) for six months.
Europol said that the French police had discovered that some of EncroChat’s servers were located in the country, and that it was possible to establish a “technical device” to access the messages.
In June, rumors began to emerge that EncroChat was compromised by the police.
The Netherlands National Police said users started throwing away their phones once the company realized that messages were being intercepted, “but it was too late.”
The police had already intercepted millions of messages, some of which had already been implemented, and others that could be used in the future.
In London, the goals of the Met operation, codenamed “Eternal,” reportedly include members of “high-damage” organized crime networks with long-standing links to violent crime and drug trafficking.
Dame Cressida said: “These people are in business to earn huge amounts of money. Many of them lead a very respectable lifestyle, and definitely a high-end lifestyle in stylish houses with big cars that are going to … clubs and restaurants, splashing cash sometimes, but sometimes being very discreet about it. “
The Met said earlier this month its detectives identified a plot by an international drug and firearm gang to shoot to death a member of a rival network.
According to the force, he managed to avoid the shooting by arresting an individual for conspiracy to murder and confiscating a loaded pistol, which was believed to be the planned murder weapon.
