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thrive

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Registered: 2023-01-04

Posts: 2,575

EncroChat bust results in the arrest of 6K criminals & €900M seizure

The removal of EncroChat in July 2020 resulted in 6,558 arrests worldwide and the confiscation of €900 million in illegal criminal proceeds, according to a report released on Tuesday by Europol.

The law enforcement organization claimed that more than 115 million conversations between no less than 60,000 users that were conducted over the encrypted messaging platform were intercepted and studied as part of a subsequent joint investigation launched by French and Dutch authorities.

Nearly three years later, the knowledge gained from electronic correspondence has led to -.

197 high-value targets were among the 6,558 suspects who were arrested.
convicted criminals will serve 7,134 years in prison.
confiscation of $739.7 million in cash.
€154,1 million in assets and bank accounts are frozen.
301.5 million chemical drug pills were seized.
103.5 tonnes of cocaine, 163.4 tonnes of marijuana, and 3.3 tonnes of heroin were seized.
971 cars, 83 boats, and 40 airplanes were all taken into custody.
271 estates or homes were seized, and.
923 weapons, 21,750 rounds of ammunition, and 68 explosives were all seized.

Organized crime groups used EncroChat, an encrypted phone network, to plan drug deals, money laundering, extortion, and even murders. According to a statement made at the time by Europol, "User hotspots were particularly present in source and destination countries for the cocaine and cannabis trade, as well as in money laundering centers.".

The mobile devices were advertised as providing users with "perfect anonymity," enabling them to act without consequence thanks to features like automatic message deletion and choices to automatically delete them from a distance by the reseller.

According to Europol, "EncroChat sold crypto telephones for about EUR 1,000 each, on a global scale.". Additionally, for a fee of EUR 1,500 for a six-month period, it provided subscriptions with global coverage and round-the-clock customer service. ".

Unbeknownst to the users, the platform was hacked by French and Dutch law enforcement in early 2020, providing important information about the groups and their tactics. The company's servers, which were working out of France, were shut down.

After that, in March 2021, another service called Sky ECC was shut down due to the unauthorized use of encrypted communications. Until June 2021, U. S. and Australian officials revealed that they used the ANoM (also known as AN0M) encrypted chat service to intercept 27 million messages sent worldwide by criminal gang members.