In the UK, was arrested 746 members of criminal gangs, coordinated their actions through secure messenger EncroChat. According to representatives of the National Agency for combating crime (NCA), “the largest and most significant” the operation was carried out in cooperation with Scotland Yard, Europol and law enforcement authorities in France and the Netherlands.
as a result of a pan-European operation, which lasted about three months, were seized more than two tons of narcotic substances, several dozen firearms and more than 54 million pounds of cash, BBC reports.
Breaking a communication service helped to “stop the criminal activity, including violent attacks, corruption, assassinations and large-scale drug trafficking”, said at a press conference in the Hague, Deputy Executive Director of Europol, wil van of Gemert.
international audience EncroChat reaches 60 thousand users, of which 10 thousand in the UK. For communication the criminals used a secure messenger that was predustanavlivat on modified Android smartphones without a GPS, microphone and camera.
As noted by Vice, such devices had a function of self-destructing messages that was deleted on the receiver side after a certain period of time, as well as “panic button” that erases all data after entering the 4 digit pin code on the lock screen.
Discovering that the servers EncroChat located in their country, the French police have established some “technical devices” that allowed it to intercept and decipher messages. It was a hacked code, Europol did not elaborate, but now the platform EncroChat closed.
Text: To.Hi-tech