BRITAIN’S BIGGEST CRIME BUST
We’ve cracked gangsters’ Enigma code and prevented 200 murders, say police
POLICE have cracked the ‘Enigma code’ of organised crime by infiltrating a secret phone network of the 10,000 most dangerous gangsters in the UK.
In an unprecedented international sting, codenamed Operation Venetic, more than 740 ‘untouchable’ UK crime bosses, arms dealers and drug lords responsible for countless killings have been arrested after their military-grade encrypted communication system was penetrated by law enforcement.
The extraordinary breakthrough meant officers could snoop on the conversations of criminal masterminds as they plotted executions, kidnappings, drug smuggling and money laundering on a messaging platform they thought was unhackable.
Two law enforcement officers have also been arrested.
The National Crime Agency said yesterday it had prevented 200 murders after cracking EncroChat, an encrypted phone network used by 60,000 of the world’s most feared criminals – including 10,000 in the
UK. Every police force in Britain has been galvanised into action to round up the country’s most notorious ‘Mr Bigs’ after their secret phone network was compromised by a team of French and Dutch agents, uncovering a ‘treasure trove’ of evidence on ‘previously untouchable, iconic’ figures.
NCA director of investigations Nikki Holland said: ‘It was like having an inside person in every top organised crime group in the country. We have cracked the Enigma code. That’s absolutely how we feel about it – it is the key to Aladdin’s cave.’ The Enigma was an encryption machine used by Germany in the Second World War.
The NCA said 746 people had been arrested in the UK over offences from drug dealing to conspiracy to murder since the EncroChat network was hacked. But the agency says ‘this is just the beginning’ and there are ambitions to round up all 10,000 British gangsters who have the devices.
UK police forces, the National Crime Agency and regional organised crime units have seized a record-breaking £54million of criminals’ cash, and a total of 77 guns, including machine guns, an AK-47 assault rifle and hand grenades. More than two tonnes of class A and B drugs, as well as 28million ‘street Valium’ pills – a drug that has caused several deaths in Scotland – were also found.
Yesterday the Daily Mail joined a dawn raid with Home Secretary Priti Patel to see a 24-year-old man in London being held on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, kidnap, drugs and firearms offences.
In London, 171 suspects have been arrested on charges including conspiracy to murder, possession of guns, money laundering and drugs offences, and the force has seized more than £13million, including its largest ever single haul of £5million.
Scotland Yard Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said: ‘ This operation is the most significant activity, certainly in my career, we have ever carried out against serious and organised criminality across London.’ Footage released by the force showed counter-terrorism officers storming a mansion in the Home Counties, setting off flash-bang grenades as they dragged a suspect out in his underpants. A similar scene unfolded in South Wales. Met
Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Graham McNulty said 1,000 officers had been involved in targeting crime bosses who live in multi-million-pound mansions,
Lethal: A Scorpion machine gun drive supercars and privately educate their children.
‘It’s a treasure trove of evidence – police have never seen the like,’ he said. ‘These are the crime bosses of this world – they are predominantly older white British men who have risen the ranks.
‘Some of these people we have wanted to get for years.’ The
‘It is the key to Aladdin’s cave’
EncroChat instant messaging system was developed in the Netherlands exclusively for the criminal market.
Its makers boasted it was the most secure in the world and had a ‘kill pill’ to stop it being hacked. The device cost £ 1,500 for a six-month contract. The system had been considered unbreakable until June 13, when a warning was sent to users telling them its servers had been hacked by a government entity.
For the past few months, police and law enforcement agencies around Europe have been able to read millions of instant messages practically ‘over the shoulders’ of suspects. Panicked crime bosses started exchanging messages saying, ‘If NCA, then we have a big problem’ and ‘the police are having a field day’ as forces started making hundreds of arrests.
Miss Holland said the intelligence had ‘punched huge holes in the UK organised crime network’ and saved countless lives. She admitted eavesdropping on criminals’ plans for attacks on rivals, including using acid, chopping off limbs and torture gave her nightmares.
Matt Horne, deputy director of investigations at the NCA, said the impact of the operation was more significant than the shutdown of the Silk Road, an online black market for drugs on the ‘dark web’. Peter Goodman, who leads on cyber-crime for the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said it had given forces access to ‘ previously untouchable, iconic organised criminals’. He added: ‘It is without doubt the biggest international to local law enforcement operation we have ever seen have an impact in the UK.’