Law enforcement in the United Kingdom has taken down the encrypted communication platform EncroChat , which was being used for illegal activities. Police have also arrested 746 people and seized £54 million in cash, 77 weapons and at least 2 tonnes of drugs .
EncroChat was one of the largest providers of encrypted communications and offered a secure service for mobile phones. According to the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA), the service was used exclusively for coordinating and planning the distribution of illegal goods, laundering money from illegal activities, carrying out plans to assassinate rival criminals, etc.
EncroChat servers are no longer operational.
The NCA said the EncroChat service had 60,000 users worldwide. Around 10,000 of those were in the UK.
The NCA said it has been working with international law enforcement agencies to target EncroChat and other encrypted communication platforms used by criminals since 2016. Two months ago, partners in France and the Netherlands managed to infiltrate the platform.
The data collected was shared through Europol.
“Unbeknownst to users, the NCA and police monitored their every move during Operation Venetic,” the NCA said. “ Operation Venetic is the largest and most significant operation of its kind in the UK.”
Users of the platform believed their messages were safe, but authorities had infiltrated the Encrochat network by installing a tool that allowed communications to be read for months.
The NCA said it had created technologies that helped identify criminalusers of the platform, analyzing millions of messages and hundreds of thousands of images.
According to the NCA, EncroChat became aware of the operation police
Messages to users said “If it’s the NCA, then we have a big problem” and “This year the police are winning.”.
“Infiltrating this UK criminal communication platform is like having a person inside every top organised crime group in the country,” said NCA Director of Investigations Nikki Holland
"Together we have been able to protect the public by arresting significant criminals, the so-called 'iconic untouchables' who have evaded law enforcement for years, and now we have the evidence to convict them."
Holland also said that any criminal using an encrypted phone should be "very concerned."
