UK courts face evidence ‘black hole’ over police EncroChat mass hacking
French investigators have refused to disclose how they downloaded millions of messages from a supposedly secure cryptophone network used by organised criminals – leaving UK courts to grapple with a forensic ‘black hole’ of evidence

https://www.computerweekly.com/news...-hole-over-police-EncroChat-mass-hacking

Colombia’s cartels target Europe with cocaine, corruption and torture
Armed Belgian police raids have lifted the lid on a sinister new front in the drugs war

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...rope-with-cocaine-corruption-and-torture

The EncroChat hack is said to be a French military state secret and that's why even the judge can't know about it
Disclosure of French state secret information about the EncroChat hack ended up with three Rotterdam judges. That is why they are now being replaced.

Camil Driessen
July 26, 2021 at 9:26 PM
Reading time 2 minutes
The Public Prosecution Service does not know how the state secret ended up with the judges: "How, when or in what way this exactly happened is unknown."

“We have made good use of the fact that criminals blindly trust crypto communication and talk freely,” said Andy Kraag, head of the National Criminal Investigation Department last year after hacking communication service EncroChat. "We received a wealth of criminal messages that allowed us to expose much of the underworld."


Also read this article:How a phone hack flawlessly exposes the narco-state of the Netherlands

As hard as the police patted themselves last summer about the hacking of EncroChat by a French-Dutch Joint Investigation Team (the Lemont investigation), the Public Prosecution Service has been trying since then to keep secret exactly how that hack took place. To the frustration of lawyers who want to attack the lawfulness of the hack in dozens of criminal cases, because it revealed incriminating chats for clients.

The Public Prosecution Service states that the hack of the EncroChat server in Roubaix is ​​a French military state secret and should therefore never be disclosed. Even judges are not allowed to know about it. The sparse information about the hacking operation is invariably painted black.

In case of change, the judge himself asks to be replaced, as opposed to a challenge. In that case, one of the parties to the proceedings requests a replacement from the court.

In both cases, an independent 'chamber' with three judges considers the request , while safeguarding the impartiality of the court is central.

Last year, 675 appeal requests were made , 17 were granted. The Council for the Judiciary does not count requests for non-disclosure.

Recent examples of non- disclosure include a judge who resigned because a suspect is a trainer at his son's football club and because her children's former daycare center was a party to the lawsuit.

The Public Prosecution Service was therefore angry when it turned out this spring that details about the EncroChat operation appeared in British lawsuits. The British would have "damaged trust" by disclosing information from meetings "about practical and legal forms" of cooperation in court cases, the Public Prosecution Service wrote.

Not on your own initiative
And now it appears that the French state secret has ended up with the three Rotterdam judges in the Sartell criminal case, a prestigious drug case in which ten suspects are suspected of large-scale cocaine smuggling, membership of a criminal organization and money laundering. The main suspect is Roger P., better known as Piet Costa because of his ties to Costa Rica.

The court president appears to have received an unexpurgated version of an authorization for the 'Lemont' hacking operation at EncroChat this year. She then discussed this with her two colleagues, according to a ruling by the special non-disclosure chamber of the Rotterdam court at the end of last week, in which the judges are removed from the case.

Because the judges know the French state secret, they now know more than the defense and the prosecutors from the Sartell case and their impartiality is therefore at stake, the non-disclosure chamber noted.

It is remarkable that the secret could only reach the judges through the Public Prosecution Service

It is remarkable that the state secret document only seems to have ended up with the judges via the Public Prosecution Service, because only the ministry has it. Nevertheless, the Public Prosecution Service states that it does not know how the state secret ended up with the judges. "How, when or in what way this exactly happened, is not known to the Public Prosecution Service."

The judges did not submit the request for non-disclosure on their own initiative, but after the Public Prosecution Service asked them to do so. Jan-Hein Kuijpers, lawyer for the main suspect Roger P., says he is displeased with the state of affairs. "The defense was not asked for an opinion about a possible change, while the Public Prosecution Service was able to comment on it." The lawyer states that he probably would not have aimed for a change, precisely because the Public Prosecution Service did. "It makes you think about the motives of the Public Prosecution Service to hide the trade with France."

The consequences of the change for the Sartell case are still unclear. If this delay increases, the suspects may receive a penalty. The case is still in the preparatory phase and will now have to be continued with three new judges. They will have to read through thousands of pages of procedural documents.

The Public Prosecution Service announces that it hopes that the planned substantive treatment will continue at the end of this year (first session day 15 November). "But then the new judges will have to come quickly."

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2021/07/2...ken-over-de-motieven-van-het-om-a4052469

Europol on Tuesday morning gave an overview of the ongoing investigations into the Encrochat hack, by the French and Dutch police, in 2020.

The dismantling of EncroChat has led to 6,558 arrests worldwide, according to Europol. To date, this has led to a total of 7,134 years in prison.

739.7 million euros in cash was seized. 145.1 million euros in bank balances were frozen.

Furthermore, the joint European police forces seized 30.5 million worth of chemical drugs (pills), 103.5 tons of cocaine, 163.4 tons of cannabis and 3.3 tons of heroin.

In addition, 971 vehicles, 271 buildings and homes, 923 weapons, 21,750 rounds of ammunition and 68 explosives were seized. The police also seized 83 boats and 40 aircraft from suspected criminals.

“Brain” behind EncroChat extradited to France
February 9, 2024

One of the key people behind setting up the EncroChat company was extradited from the Dominican Republic to France this week to face trial. Paul Krusky (54) was arrested in the Dominican Republic in May 2022 and has been under house arrest since then.

Criminal organization
He is suspected in France of participating in a criminal organization that traded in drugs and weapons and of setting up an illegal communications service.

According to French justice, Canadian Krusky was one of the people who set up EncroChat's business model and made the sale and marketing of the devices possible. Krusky has been developing Encro since 2012 .

An international arrest warrant was issued for Krusky in July 2021. At the request of the Public Prosecution Service of Lille (Lille), he was extradited to France last week.

In 2022, there were raids in several countries. Krusky was then arrested , but was released again

Software
EncroChat was a communications system where customers purchased telephones with software installed on them. The phones could only be used for chatting. The intention was that the investigating authorities would never be able to make the messages readable. But that did happen.

In 2020, the police dismantled the EncroChat system in an international action, after several months of live reading of messages sent by users with a certain type of Encro phone.

Roubaix
Encro had many users, especially in the Netherlands, and the police regularly came across these types of phones in criminal investigations. Dutch specialists discovered in 2017 that EncroChat had hosted its servers at one of the largest hosting companies in the world: OVH. The users' encrypted messages were sent around the world from an OVH branch in Roubaix, France.

26Bismarck
At that time, an investigation into the executives behind the EncroChat company started in France, and a similar investigation started in the Netherlands 26Bismarck. It was later agreed that France would prosecute EncroChat's leadership. The Netherlands continued its criminal investigation into 26Oakmont: into resellers of Encro devices.

The Dutch justice department focused on the legible messages from the thousands of Dutch users of EncroChat. Justice states that it was clear that EncroChat was a criminal organization and that the users were all criminals.

Other countries received Encro data from users who worked or stayed there.

More suspects
In 2020, the live operation was against EncroChat. Between 2020 and 2023, more than 6,500 suspects were arrested and at least €900 million in assets were seized, according to Eurojust.

More suspects are on trial in France in the Encro investigation. In 2022, Spanish suspects were extradited to France.

Various European procedures are still ongoing regarding the extent to which the hack on EncroChat was permitted .

'Suspects behind the sale of Encrochat telephones laundered millions'
February 28, 2024

In an investigation into the encrypted messaging service Encrochat, the name of a well-known convicted drug trafficker has emerged. He is said to have been in contact with three men suspected of selling the devices. These three are currently on trial on charges of membership of a criminal organization. They are said to have laundered 56 million euros.

Trio
These are Eindhoven residents Frans S. (64), Peter H. (43) and Hassan K. (48). The AD wrote this on Wednesday. The first is a former catering manager, the second has a car wash and the third is a performance coach. According to the Public Prosecution Service (OM), the trio functioned as a kind of middle management of the encrypted messaging service

Switch
The name of another Dutchman appears in the research: Tommy van der S. (42). The Eindhoven resident was one of the most wanted criminals in the Netherlands for years. He was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2017 as the leader of a drug gang that had its headquarters in an antique store, the newspaper said.

Van der S. is said to have acted as the link between the absolute bosses of EncroChat and the Dutch trio. He is on the run, having previously been arrested in Dubai but never extradited.

Money laundering
According to the Public Prosecution Service, the three were guilty of laundering the 56 million in income from Encrochat. Lawyer Marijn Zuketto questions the criminal nature of Encrochat: 'The Public Prosecution Service just assumes that the phones were paid for with money derived from crime. But I'd like to see that sometime.'

Last month, the alleged mastermind behind EncroChat, Canadian Paul Krusky, was extradited to France.

It blows my mind that so many of the biggest/ smartest ( I'd say) drug smuggling groups of UK/ Europe
didn't think that law enforcement wouldn't be able to ' break into ' encro. Especially when the police must have been noticing this encryption on the phones of major league villains. Wonder if the criminals really knew that so many other major criminals were also using encro, that it was 100% certain the police will target encro.

It's encryption was never going to defy interpol for long.

So many class a drug rings caught here in the UK.