French and Dutch judicial and police authorities announced on Thursday 2 July that the global encrypted communications network EncroChat, widely used by criminal organisations, has been decommissioned.
A joint investigation between France and the Netherlands had been set up with the support of Eurojust and Europol and made it possible to intercept and decipher in real time, without the senders’ knowledge, millions of messages exchanged between criminals with the aim of planning violent attacks, corruption, attempted murder or large-scale drug transport. It has led to several arrests in different European countries.
“These messages are a gold mine of evidence that would have taken years to find”, the head of the
For his part, the Deputy Director of the Judicial Police of the French National Gendarmerie, Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, mentioned some 2,000 items of evidence, much of which has already been analysed.
The interception of the messages ended on 13 June 2020, when the company realised that a public authority had penetrated the platform. EncroChat then sent a warning to all its users, advising them to throw away their mobile phones immediately.
Nonetheless, authorities believe that the effects of this move will continue to resonate in criminal circles for many years to come. The information collected will contribute to hundreds of ongoing investigations and has triggered the opening of several new investigations. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)