LONDON: British police said on Thursday they had made a major breakthrough in the fight against serious and organised crime, arresting “iconic” figures and smashing thousands of conspiracies including murder plots.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said the cracking of the encryption used by EncroChat, which offered a secure mobile phone instant messaging service and was used by criminals to coordinate their activities, had allowed detectives to make almost 750 arrests.
“Together we’ve protected the public by arresting middle-tier criminals and the kingpins, the so-called iconic untouchables who have evaded law enforcement for years, and now we have the evidence to prosecute them,” said NCA director of investigations Nikki Holland.
The NCA said it had been working with international partners since 2016 to crack EncroChat, which has 60,000 users worldwide and around 10,000 in the United Kingdom. Two months ago, French and Dutch authorities infiltrated the platform and shared the data via Europol.
British police had since made 746 arrests, claimed £54 mil (RM286.68 mil) in criminal cash, seized 77 firearms and more than two tonnes of drugs, the NCA said.
Additionally, it had stopped rival gangs carrying out kidnappings and executions, “successfully mitigating over 200 threats to life” it added. – July 2, 2020, Reuters
