The system had an estimated 60,000 customers when it shut down abruptly in June 2020, and Europol revealed the next month that legislation enforcement officers had been intercepting customers’ communications for months.
In a press release on Tuesday, Europol provided its first overview of the outcomes of the takedown, which it mentioned had “sent shockwaves across organised crime groups in Europe and beyond”.
Police have analysed greater than 115 million “criminal conversations”, Europol mentioned, serving to forestall “violent attacks, attempted murders, corruption and large scale drugs transports.”
The company mentioned investigations spawned by the takedown have up to now led to the seizure of 100 tonnes of cocaine, 30 million tablets of “chemical drugs”, practically a thousand automobiles, a whole bunch of properties and dozens of boats and planes.
The police assertion gave no particulars on whether or not the homeowners of Encrochat themselves had been arrested.
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French and Dutch authorities had been as a result of maintain a press convention in Lille in a while Tuesday. Partial outcomes of Encrochat-linked investigations have beforehand been introduced by French, Dutch, and British police in 2020 and by German police in 2021.
Encrochat bought modified Android cellular gadgets for round 1,000 euros every and charged customers hefty subscription charges with the promise their communications would stay encrypted and secret.
It shut down abruptly in June 2020 after its unidentified operators apparently realized that they had been compromised.
Europol mentioned the corporate had routed encrypted communications by means of servers in France.
“Eventually, it was possible to place a technical device to go beyond the encryption technique and obtain access to users’ correspondence,” Europol mentioned on Tuesday.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com