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.
It comes after their military-grade encrypted communication system was penetrated by law enforcement.
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 (NCA) 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.’
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’.
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.
Police Scotland made 59 arrests and seized £25million worth of illegal drugs, eight firearms and explosives – plus more than £5million and ¤1.3million in cash.
More than 440lb of cocaine, 73lb of heroin and 140lb of cannabis were kept off Scotland’s streets.
In addition, more than 300,000 prescription pills were also found.
More than 140lb of cocaine was found in a lorry at Hamilton Services, off the M74 in Lanarkshire, on May 28, while 130lb of the drug and £750,000 in cash was seized from a car and van on the A74 in Dumfriesshire on May 19.
Gerry Mclean, NCA regional head of investigations for Scotland, said: ‘The extraordinary results we have had is testimony to the partnership we have with Police Scotland, the support from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and the strategy set by Scotland’s Organised Crime Task Force.’
Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable Angela McLaren said: ‘These intelligence-led proactive operations have resulted in some of the largest seizures made.’
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 and possession of guns. The force has seized more than £13million, including its largest ever single haul of £5million.
Scotland Yard Commissioner
‘It is the key to Aladdin’s cave’
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.’
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 during an operation in South Wales.
Met Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Graham McNulty said 1,000 officers had been involved in targeting crime bosses.
‘These are the crime bosses of this world – predominantly older white British men,’ he said. ‘Some of these people we have wanted to get for years.’
The EncroChat messaging system was developed in the Netherlands 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. Devices 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 servers had been hacked by a government entity. Crime bosses exchanged messages saying, ‘If NCA, we have a big problem’.
Miss Holland said the intelligence had ‘punched huge holes in the UK organised crime network’ and saved countless lives. She admitted that eavesdropping on criminals’ plans for attacks on rivals, including using acid, chopping off limbs and torture gave her nightmares.
Peter Goodman, who leads on cyber-crime for the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said: ‘It is the biggest international to local law enforcement operation we’ve ever seen have an impact in the UK.’