Belgian Police Seize 27 Tons of Coke After Cracking Encrypted Phones

Kartal1 · Apr 8, 2021

Belgian Police Seize 27 Tons of Coke After Cracking Encrypted Phones

WRITTEN BY JULETT PINEDA

After they intercepted encrypted messages exchanged between members of organized crime groups, Belgian authorities seized in the port of Antwerp 27.64 tons of cocaine worth some 1.38 billion euros (about US$1.64 billion) just over the past two months, the Belgian Prosecution Office said on Tuesday

Belgian and Dutch investigators accessed the messages after cracking the encrypted communication platform Sky ECC in March last year.

Cocaine intercepted in Antwerp (By Belgian Public Prosecution Office)The now-defunct Canadian company sold to criminals worldwide devices that used private servers and its own SIM cards to obstruct police detection.

A court in Antwerp confirmed the arrests of four people, including an employee of a port company.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office said the suspects acted as intermediaries and exploited the access they had to public databases, such as the national register, to let the drugs enter Europe’s second-largest port.

Thanks to the decrypted messages, local authorities have since February been able to detect dozens of batches of drugs, including nearly 11 tons of cocaine discovered in a container in early April.

The Sky ECC interception led Belgian and Dutch authorities to arrest nearly 50 suspected criminals and search more than 200 premises last month. The Belgian Prosecutor’s Office informed back then the seizure of 14 tons of cocaine and the confiscation of over 1.2 million euros (US$ 1.4 million).

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