EncroChat Bust Leads to 6,558 Criminals’ Arrests and €900 Million Seizure

Europol on Tuesday declared that the takedown of EncroChat in July 2020 led to 6,558 arrests throughout the world and the seizure of €900 million in illicit prison proceeds.

The legislation enforcement agency stated that a subsequent joint investigation initiated by French and Dutch authorities intercepted and analyzed about 115 million conversations that took spot more than the encrypted messaging system among no a lot less than 60,000 people.

Now nearly three decades afterwards, the data attained from digital correspondence has to –

• Arrests of 6,558 suspects, like 197 significant-benefit targets
• 7,134 yrs of imprisonment of convicted criminals
• Confiscation of €739.7 million in income
• Freeze of €154.1 million frozen in belongings or lender accounts
• Seizure of 30.5 million tablets of chemical drugs
• Seizure of 103.5 tonnes of cocaine, 163.4 tonnes of hashish, and 3.3 tonnes of heroin
• Seizure of 971 cars, 83 boats, and 40 planes
• Seizure of 271 estates or residences, and
• Seizure of 923 weapons, as nicely as 21,750 rounds of ammunition and 68 explosives

EncroChat was an encrypted phone network that was utilized by organized criminal offense groups to plot drug offers, money laundering, extortion, and even murders. “User hotspots ended up especially existing in supply and spot international locations for cocaine and cannabis trade, as very well as in revenue laundering centers,” Europol said at the time.

The mobile products were marketed as supplying “perfect anonymity” to consumers, making it possible for them to run with impunity via capabilities like automatic deletion of messages and selections to routinely erase them from a distance by the reseller.

“EncroChat bought crypto telephones for about EUR 1,000 just about every, on an international scale,” Europol said. “It also provided subscriptions with all over the world protection, at a value of EUR 1,500 for a 6-month time period, with 24/7 help.”

Unbeknownst to the customers, the platform was infiltrated by French and Dutch legislation enforcement in early 2020, giving valuable insight into the groups and their modus operandi. The company’s servers, which were functioning from France, were taken down.

The unlawful use of encrypted communications has given that led to the dismantling of a different assistance referred to as Sky ECC in March 2021. In June 2021, U.S. and Australian officers disclosed that they ran an encrypted chat service named ANoM (aka AN0M) for nearly three yrs to intercept 27 million messages exchanged in between criminal gang customers globally.

Uncovered this article fascinating? Comply with us on Twitter  and LinkedIn to study additional distinctive written content we post.

Some pieces of this article are sourced from:
thehackernews.com