BRUSSELS (AP) – Belgian police made 48 arrests on Tuesday during an unprecedented large-scale operation targeting organized crime after investigators smashed a popular encrypted communications network among criminals, prosecutors said.
About 200 searches that mobilized more than 1,500 police officers, including special units, were conducted simultaneously across the country, with 11.5 million people, the federal prosecutor’s office said. Police confiscated 1.2 million euros ($ 1.4 million) in cash, along with firearms, jewelry, diamonds, police uniforms and luxury cars.
Meanwhile, Dutch police and prosecutors said in a statement that they had arrested 30 suspects across the country on Tuesday and searched 75 homes and offices.
Belgian prosecutors say investigators broke into the Sky ECC encrypted messaging service and intercepted a billion messages during their two-year investigation, which also contributed to the seizure of more than 17 tonnes of cocaine.
According to the survey, there are approximately 171,000 phones equipped with Sky ECC service worldwide.
The search began around 5 am and took place mainly in the Antwerp region. There were no major incidents, police said, adding that the operation dismantled several international drug trafficking organizations.
With thousands of shipping containers arriving in Antwerp every day, the Belgian port city is one of the main ports of entry into Europe for cocaine. Traffic in the city has led to an increase in violence recently, with gun battles and grenade attacks taking place.
Last year, authorities in Belgium and three other countries dismantled a drug trafficking network carrying hundreds of millions of dollars in Western Europe. The investigation, which began when a container containing 2.8 tonnes of cocaine was found in Antwerp, uncovered an international network with connections in at least four European countries and South America.
Dutch police and prosecutors seized 28 firearms in the port city of Rotterdam. Earlier, during the investigation, they intercepted thousands of kilograms (kilograms) of cocaine, heroin and hashish, prosecutors said.
Law enforcement officials “managed to gain access to hundreds of millions of messages” from users of the Sky ECC encrypted messaging service, the Dutch prosecutors’ statement said.
The Sky ECC server was taken offline on Tuesday and confiscated by Dutch authorities, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors said that while monitoring encrypted messages, they were able to prevent dozens of planned crimes, including kidnappings and crimes.
The operation followed a similar crackdown in July last year, when European police broke into another encrypted communications network called EncroChat, allowing them to monitor criminals in real time while planning drug shipments, arms transactions and murders.
Prosecutors said Tuesday that many former EncroChat users migrated to Sky ECC last year.
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Corder reported from The Hague, the Netherlands.