Agents from various bodies during the international operation against the six “drug lords” with the epicenter in Dubai.
Speedyherder, a pseudonym under which English police suspect a British drug trafficker is hiding, received a very explicit text message on May 28, 2020: “Do you have a boy who is ready to be a little crazy? I just need a boy. How much do you want?”. Another suspected human trafficker – this one was arrested in Malaga in 2023 – was looking for help. He needed a henchman for a small task: setting a vehicle on fire. And without hesitation, he communicated his intentions to Speedyherder via Encrochat , an encrypted messaging system where both believed they were going unpunished. For years, criminals from across Europe used this digital platform to openly talk about their drug stash, robberies, and bill settlement… But in 2020, France managed to get into the system to infiltrate and intercept millions of communications. The global fight against organized crime had just changed. “This operation opened our eyes to how the drug trade currently works and where its leaders are,” admits a senior Spanish official. And his The effect is still valid today.
More information
In Encrochat, where the suspects openly demonstrated, officers saw firsthand the true dark side of drug trafficking. And the analysis of this enormous amount of information – as well as that which was interfered with in other subsequent operations against two similar platforms (Sky in France and Anom in the United States) – has spurred investigations around the world. Nothing has had as big an impact on the ongoing anti-drug proceedings as the exploitation of all this data, admits the Spanish anti-drug prosecutor’s office, which in 2022 already had 69 cases with “evidence” from these encrypted networks. “Around 90% of the communications intercepted in Encrochat, Sky and Anom are related to drug trafficking,” the ministry emphasizes. One of the hunted, for example, is Joakim Peter Broberg, stepson of the mayor of Marbella (Ángeles Muñoz), who, according to the summary, contacted his “suppliers” of narcotics via Encrochat.
But to understand this story, you have to look back a few years. And mark 2017 on your calendar. At this point, investigators already suspect that criminals have found a new means of communication. A system in which they act like ghosts, far from the police’s radar. French authorities then targeted Encrochat, which was sold as a platform that guaranteed the anonymity and untraceability of its customers. Its users previously got encrypted cell phones (more expensive, currently costing around 1,600-1,800 euros) and paid a subscription (Europol, the EU police authority, speaks of 1,500 euros per semester) for a system that only worked between devices. It had the same program installed. The service even included a PIN code that allowed them to remotely wipe all data on the device. A perfect feature in case they get arrested.
A March 2020 police report integrated into the Oikos case, which investigates alleged match-fixing in Spanish football, already showed the agents’ frustration and warned that this criminal network was using Encrochat with impunity. In fact, the inability to access these messages hindered an important part of this investigation.
But everything changes in spring 2020. The Encrochat servers were located in France, where authorities are launching a special operation to inject Trojan horse software into the system that will allow the extraction of 115 million “criminal conversations” from 60,000 users, according to Europol. A German court states that not only were the chats running up to June 2020 intercepted – when the platform itself detected the hack and issued a warning about the destruction of the devices – but the cell phone memories were also accessed and restored. Previous conversations and photos submitted. The details of the court-sanctioned operation were not disclosed: they were declared a military secret.
What influences the most is what happens next. So you don’t miss anything, subscribe.
Subscribe to
France began analyzing all this data and is gradually passing it on to other countries to launch their own investigations. The same thing happens with the data obtained in Sky and Anom – if one of these communication networks fails, the criminals switch to another, the agents explain. “The whole of Europe agrees with this,” emphasize tax sources. And not just because of the crowds, say several police officers, but because this information has revealed the existence of mafia groups that are much more powerful than previously thought. “They manage more money than we expected. We even discovered dozens of comparisons and murders that we didn’t know about,” says a participant in a meeting organized this September in Madrid by the Ministry of the Interior on the subject of the fight against cocaine trafficking and attended by police officers from Europe, Latin America, Morocco and Turkey .
In a world where boundaries are blurring, the scale of the problem is reflected in overwhelming results. According to Europol, investigations derived from Encrochat alone have enabled the arrest of more than 6,500 criminals worldwide (almost 200 of them “high-level” criminals); and intervene more than 730 million euros in cash (another 150 in bank accounts); almost 300 tons of cocaine, cannabis and heroin; 30.5 million chemical drug pills; almost a thousand firearms; and more than 1,300 homes, vehicles, boats and planes.
The concern is therefore noticeable in the environment. France, Belgium and the Netherlands already consider organized crime a threat to national security. In fact, the latter country’s authorities beefed up the security of Princess Amalia and Prime Minister Mark Rutte after finding decrypted conversations containing direct threats against them from the so-called Mocro Maffia. “In Spain,” continues a police commander, “[esos chats] “They let us know that the Albanian groups and the Balkan cartel are very strong, much stronger than we thought.” Furthermore, adds an agent, the “rampant” corruption that exists in the country’s ports is on the table came.
A conspiracy that took place in 2021 as part of Operation Jumita-Aelaa, whose information came from these encrypted platforms, aimed to control the port of Algeciras (Cádiz) in order to facilitate the importation of large quantities of drugs. The Guardia Civil confiscated banknotes worth 16.5 million euros, poorly hidden in sports bags and garage cupboards.
Thousands of banknotes were confiscated in the Jumita operation in Algeciras (Cádiz).MC.IC (EFE)
Special groups founded in Spain
The researchers also had to adapt. Several police commanders emphasize that the fight against organized crime has undergone a “revolution” thanks to the intervention of these platforms. “It has changed because they have revealed to us that their infiltration into society in Europe is much more than we thought. New routes and means of transport for drug trafficking have been discovered,” emphasizes a state police officer. “We had the opportunity to access communications, photos, videos and geolocations…” they add from the Customs Surveillance Service (SVA, depending on the tax authority). “Now we know how the importation, transit and distribution of drugs is negotiated between drug lords who do not have to sit at the same table. In these chats, for example, they discuss corruption in Spanish ports: how much must be spent on bribes to ensure the importation of cargoes,” emphasize Civil Guard sources.
To take advantage of all this wealth of information, the National Police has set up a group within the Drug and Organized Crime Unit (Udyco) dedicated exclusively to analyzing the intercepted conversations. The Civil Guard has also set up a team to investigate the hundreds of thousands of recovered messages and has permanently stationed agents at Europol headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands. Customs surveillance has been integrated into the working groups set up by the European Police Authority. “It has allowed us to open new avenues of investigation in cases that were already open and launch others,” adds the SVA, which currently has 18 active operations thanks to information from Sky and Encrochat (all related to drug trafficking).
“You used to intercept a ship with a cache and hold the crew. Now we can take action against the entire network and arrest 30 or 40 people who were involved in receiving and distributing the drugs,” emphasizes an experienced agent. At the end of last year, Europol coordinated a macro-operation in four European countries called “Desert Light”, which enabled the dismantling of the “cocaine supercartel”, a structure of independent but interconnected drug plots that was allegedly responsible for the introduction of a third cartel to this one Drug widespread in Europe. Among the 49 arrested – 13 of them in Spain – were six “drug lords” who were captured in Dubai. The Guardia Civil identified two of these ringleaders precisely thanks to the analysis of the messages intercepted on Sky.
One of them, nicknamed Robo on the platform, spoke in the chats about the seizure of a stash of 698 kilos of cocaine in Valencia in 2020. Robo was particularly interested in whether the loss of the stash was due to a police operation or a robbery was from a rival gang. The Civil Guard was able to identify him as Ryan James Hale, a Briton linked to the Irish Kinahan clan, one of the main mafia groups. A name was also given of the person who used Hassan’s pseudonym: Anthony Alfredo Martínez Meza, allegedly responsible for chartering drug-laden boats from Panama.
The messages decrypted in Sky also enabled the arrest of El Tigre, “the world’s most important Spanish drug trafficker”, whose identity had been a mystery for years. This is allegedly Alejandro Salgado Vega, a 44-year-old man from Madrid who was hiding in Dubai. Mvrand or Whitewall are other Civil Guard operations that have relied on the information extracted from these platforms. The first went to Fikri Amellah, a suspected drug trafficker who, when he was arrested in 2021, was in the living room of his Barcelona home surrounded by five encrypted cell phones with which he allegedly coordinated various drug importation operations into Spain. The second ended with the arrest of John Morrissey, the suspected drug trafficking “banker”, on the Costa del Sol.
Europe earrings
Despite all of these police successes, the fight against suspected drug traffickers who are being hunted through encrypted platforms is not yet over. The level-headedness is noticeable among the investigators, who continue to analyze a large number of intercepted conversations, but look askance at national and European courts. The judiciary must clarify the validity of this evidence after the detainees’ defense and several defense lawyers complained about its use, considering this information the result of an indiscriminate and massive interference in communications without appropriate legal confirmation.
Criminal lawyer Luis de las Heras explains it this way: “It’s as if the French police entered the post office and intercepted hundreds of thousands of letters.” And with the information gained, it begins to distribute data packages to different countries. That would seem outrageous to us. Well, that’s the same thing.” The lawyer of a suspected human trafficker put forward a similar theory in a case opened by Encrochat in the National Court: “The French Gendarmerie found a way to break into this server and access all the messages of thousands of users, without discriminating against What people in any way.” have I researched? This is a massive, indiscriminate and prospective collection of all messages from all users, which, for reasons of confidentiality, implies a disproportionate and unlawful investigation, without the French authorities having explained what the purpose of the operation was.
Weapons, money and documents confiscated from members of the El Tigre gang.
However, this criticism has so far not received a positive response from the judiciary. France and the United Kingdom, for example, have condemned and approved the use of decrypted information. Last October, the French Court of Cassation concluded that French law supports the technique used in the intervention in Encrochat.
No judgment has been issued in this regard in Spain. However, in several ongoing orders, the national court has ordered to accept the information from these platforms. The interference in communications took place in France, therefore the Spanish court confirms that, based on the agreement between both countries on the “mutual recognition” of their legality, the documents containing these chats provided by the authorities of the neighboring country are admissible.
Defense has now turned its expectations to Europe. A Berlin court submitted a preliminary ruling on Encrochat to the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) in 2022, asking about the validity of communications of this caliber as evidence of “interference.” This institution has not yet commented, but is keeping the researchers and the causes in suspense. In the future, drug traffickers will also have the opportunity to go to the European Court of Human Rights once they have been legally convicted in the respective countries in which they are being prosecuted. Everyone (police, criminals and suspects) knows that there is still a lot to do.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits