‘They thought they were untouchable’ – the hack that changed policing forever

They thought they were untouchable…but little did they know that law enforcement agencies around the world were monitoring their every move.

In April 2020, European law enforcement led by Dutch and French forces managed to hack into the encrypted messaging service network EncroChat. The hack, one of the largest ever carried out by the authorities, saw malware secretly introduced into the system, giving forces around the world access to millions of once-hidden messages.

The messages gave police forces unique access like they had never seen before. Criminals have spoken openly about everything from drug and firearms deals to organized crime. On June 13, 2020, the hack was made public, with EncroChat advising its users to turn off and remove their phones.

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The public announcement forced the hand of law enforcement, who soon cashed in on the gold mine of information. Since then, around 1,500 criminals have been convicted using EncroChat data as evidence in the UK. The data obtained from the hack was used to take some of the most dangerous criminals off the streets.

Last week, the ECHO could finally reveal the role Vincent Coggins played in Merseyside’s criminal underworld as the boss of a menacing organized crime group (OCG) called the Huyton Firm. Coggins was unmasked as the leader of the gang in 2020 following the EncroChat hack, but his involvement could only be made public at the culmination of the trial of one of his criminal associates.

But what was EncroChat and how did it become the downfall of criminals around the world?

What was an EncroPhone?

The once top-secret messaging system – used by drug dealers, gun owners and gangs – ran on customized Android mobile phones. Accessed by a secure password, a user on the platform was given a unique “handle”, usually made up of a noun and an adjective.

However, the ECHO understands that EncroChat offered a personalized service where users could pay a fee to choose their own name. In some cases, the handle was eventually used as a stepping stone for authorities to identify the person behind it.

Criminal organizations used the expensive phones, which cost between £1,200 and £1,500 for a six-month contract, to carry out their criminal activities without fear of their messages ever being seen by law enforcement. The EncroChat system could “guarantee the anonymity” of its users, according to the company behind it.

The phone had a number of security features that included encrypted chats, phone calls and notes. There was also panic wipe, where all data on the device could be wiped by entering a four-digit code from the lock screen. The phones could also have their camera, microphone and GPS chip removed.

Who was behind EncroChat?

The identities of the people behind the encrypted service are not known. The National Crime Agency (NCA) told Sky News that the company itself has not been accused of criminal activity, but its platform has been used by criminals.

However, Dutch journalist Jan Meeus claimed that a Dutch organized crime group was involved and financed the developers. In the wake of the hack, Vice reported that someone responded via an email associated with EncroChat to tell the website it was shutting down.

They said: “Our top priority has always been the integrity and security of our customers, and when we can no longer guarantee that, we have no choice but to shut down the service, even if it destroys our business.”

How did the authorities crack it?

The encrypted messaging system came to the attention of French authorities in 2017, about a year after the EncroChat platform first went online. Sky News reported that French police discovered that EncroChat was operating from servers based in the city of Roubaix, France, and eventually managed to “plant a technical device” that allowed them to access encrypted messages sent over the network.

In February 2020, French and Dutch authorities revealed that they had developed software that could obtain data from EncroChat. The hack, implemented via an update, collected usernames and messages from the phones, as well as the location where they were used via Wi-Fi hotspots.

This information was soon shared with British authorities, and by April 2020, the NCA had access to millions of texts and hundreds of thousands of images related to UK handles. Codenamed Operation Venetic, the agency began analyzing the massive amount of data.

Operation Venetic

Operation Venetic is a UK-wide investigation led by the NCA working in partnership with every police force in the country. Of the 60,000 users worldwide, the NCA said around 10,000 of the handles were linked to the UK. The former NCA director of investigations said at the time: “These are people who are causing huge amounts of misery and damage in the UK.

“These are what we would call iconic untouchables, these are people who have worked with impunity and eluded law enforcement and now we’ve been able to go in and see exactly what they’re doing.” As a result of the infiltration, in the first days after the hack was made public, UK police arrested 746 people, including major crime bosses, seized two tonnes of drugs, worth around £100m and seized significant amounts of cash and weapons, including the submarine. – machine gun.

According to national figures released by Greater Manchester Police, law enforcement agencies have now made 3,100 arrests, convicted 1,500 offenders, seized more than nine tonnes of Class A drugs and £84 million in cash and seized 3,500 rounds of ammunition.

In 2022, the first people convicted of conspiracy to commit murder using EncroChat data were jailed. Frankie Sinclair, from Cardiff, and Paul Fontaine, from north London, were jailed for life for at least 18 years after a plot to buy a gun to kill a gang rival was uncovered.

Many of those convicted have incriminated themselves by sending personal details and pictures to other handles. In some stunning cases, criminals have been convicted because images of their hands holding drug blogs were matched to their fingerprints.

EncroChat on Merseyside

Merseyside Police launched Operation Aquarium – the force’s overall response to the EncroChat hack. Of the 10,000 handles in the UK, hundreds were believed to be in Merseyside. In the first year after the attack, more than 100 suspects were arrested, with investigators warning they had the username of every EncroChat device believed to be based on Merseyside.

Merseyside Police’s head of investigations, Detective Chief Inspector Mark Kameen, who continued to lead the investigation into Olivia Pratt Korbel’s murder, said on the one-year anniversary of the hack: “We still have hundreds of people to go and arrest. . We work with the data. That takes a lot of time, but we will come knocking and you may face jail time.

Some of the first to be arrested and charged in Merseyside using EncroChat data were Vincent Coggins and his associates Paul Woodford, Michael Earle and Edward Jarvis. Coggins used the handle ‘moonlitboat’, while Earle, Jarvis and Woodford used the handles ‘bladehedge’, ‘Softherb’ and ‘kingwasp’ respectively.

The men were arrested and charged as part of the North West Regional Crime Unit’s (NWROCU) ‘Operation SubZero’, which marked some of, if not the first, arrests using EncroChat data as evidence. Huyton’s men have been implicated in a drugs and blackmail conspiracy after one of their homes was raided.

The men had been involved in crime for decades before the plot, but the hacked data provided the evidence law enforcement needed. All but Jarvis pleaded guilty to the crimes, and gang boss Coggins was sentenced to 28 years in prison. After them, the floodgates opened and a number of key Merseyside players were indicted.

Since then, the likes of Thomas Maher, who used the handles ‘Satirical’ and ‘Snacker’ to smuggle £1.5m of drugs into the country, have been jailed. Maher was jailed for 14 years and eight months, while dealers John Barton and Daniel Rushworth, who discussed selling drugs and brokering the gun, were jailed for 21, 16 years and four months respectively. To see just some of the Merseyside criminals who have used EncroChat, click here.

Was the EncroChat hack legal?

While most convicted of crimes related to EncroChat pleaded guilty, believing there was too much evidence against them, some fought their charges in court arguing the evidence was not legal. There have been a number of cases that have called into question whether the evidence can be used legally.

Computer Weekly, which has expertly reported on the EncroChat hack since its inception, said that under UK law, phone calls or data intercepted in transit cannot be used as evidence and cannot be sent during a court hearings to protect the methods. used by law enforcement officers.

The restriction, however, does not apply if the same data is obtained from storage in an electronic device through a hacking operation. European authorities have refused to reveal how the infiltration operation was carried out, citing defense secrecy. Prosecutors argued the messages were obtained from electronic storage, but defense attorneys argued the messages were obtained in transit.

In March of this year, a case involving a former Liverpool FC youth star, known as Embossed II, was the “lead case” in the long-running discussion. Jamie Cassidy, his older brother Jonathan and business partner Nasar Ahmed pleaded guilty to the offenses before them after Judge Nicholas Dean, the Recorder of Manchester, who also presided over the trial of Coggins’ associate Jarvis, found the messages would could be used legally.

Computer Weekly reported that in a written ruling, Judge Dean said there was no doubt that a large amount of data was taken and that the material, if admissible, implicates those shown to have used the phones to send and receive messages in serious crimes. He said: “Anything else, this is not a case of faulty or corrupt software giving the impression of individuals involved in criminal activity.”

What’s next?

Criminal courts across the country still have dozens of EncroChat hearings per week, showing the scale of crime involving the messaging platform. Before EncroPhones, criminals used other encrypted messaging services such as Blackberry. It is very likely that the underworld will look to private network alternatives to EncroChat to continue their illicit business, if they haven’t already.

However, the success of the EncroChat hack and the impact it had on taking down some of the UK’s biggest gangland players will no doubt mean their next steps will be taken with more caution than before.

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