French police’s cracking of an encrypted telephone system used by organised criminals led to hundreds of arrests across Europe and the seizure of millions of euros in cash, illegal drugs, weapons and vehicles, European crime agencies said on Thursday.
The UK’s National Crime Agency said the work by France’s Gendarmerie Nationale on the EncroChat service had led to 764 arrests in recent days, including of corrupt law enforcement officials, the seizure of 77 weapons and averted 200 potential murders being planned over the service.
In the Netherlands, which co-operated with the Gendarmerie on the investigation through the EU’s Europol and Eurojust agencies, the national police said they had arrested more than 100 suspects, seized tonnes of illegal drugs and shut down 19 laboratories producing synthetic narcotics.