More than 6,500 people have been arrested and €900 million confiscated following the dismantling of Encrochat’s worldwide encrypted communications network in 2020, Europol said Tuesday in a first evaluation of the operation.
The European organization stressed that the dismantling had an “important impact” on international organized crime, but one case remains open: the case of the organizers of the most illegal mobile network, which is still the subject of a judicial investigation launched in May 2020. specialized interregional court of Lille, France.
“The main people responsible for EncroChat” and those who conceived the system have been identified, Lille prosecutor Carol Etienne said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The prosecutor added that three of them have been charged and two are in custody.
According to investigation materials obtained by Agence France-Presse, three men were charged in the summer of 2022, including two brothers of Spanish nationality.
Defense lawyers contested the allegations and the Court of Appeal of Douai (northern France) was due to rule on June 14, but has yet to announce a decision.
The use of the EncroChat communication network guaranteed the criminal groups absolute confidentiality and invisibility, since the servers were located in France.
The Europol operation made it possible to intercept 115 million “criminal conversations” established by approximately 60,000 users.
The European Police Cooperation Agency, Europol and the European Judicial Cooperation Agency, Eurojust, as well as French and Dutch prosecutors presented the new data on Tuesday at a press conference in Lille, where the investigation was launched in 2018. after discovering the servers that controlled the EncroChat system.
So far, 6,658 people have been arrested, including 197 “high value targets”, almost 900 million euros of “criminal funds” have been seized or frozen, in addition to the confiscation of more than 100 tons of cocaine, 160 tons of cannabis and 923 weapons.
According to Europol, 271 houses or properties were confiscated during the same operation.
“The dismantling of the EncroChat system in 2020 sent shock waves among organized crime groups in Europe and beyond,” Europol said on Tuesday.
Subsequent investigations in EU countries and third countries that requested information sharing helped prevent “violent attacks, attempted murders, corruption and large-scale drug trafficking”.
“Consumers were particularly concentrated in countries of origin and destination of drug trafficking, as well as money laundering centres,” Europol explained.
In July 2020, the judicial and police authorities of France and the Netherlands announced the dismantling of the network after an operation to infiltrate a criminal group.
EncroChat sold fully encrypted mobile phones, without cameras, microphones, GPS or USB ports, for around 1,000 euros with an “alarm PIN” option for immediate disposal.
The rollout ended on June 13, 2020, when the network realized, according to a warning message sent to all of its customers, that it had been “illegally infiltrated” by “government authorities” who advised users to stay away from mobile phones immediately.
The operation uncovered “some of the most wanted criminals in the world”, including “a major Danish criminal (…) wanted for 17 murders” and arrested in 2020 in Dubai, according to French police. .
“More than 200 assassination attempts have been thwarted in the UK alone,” concludes Europol.
Eight drug dealers were arrested after decrypting EncroChat and sentenced on June 16 in Nancy, France to terms ranging from one year of probation to 12 years in prison.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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