Operation Venetic - hundreds arrested for 'leading secret criminal lives', and £54m seized [so far]

[cupid_stunt]

Major story here, the authorities infiltrated an encrypted phone system resulting in those that considered themselves "untouchable", and posing as respectable, wealthy tycoons being arrested, and some law enforcement officers too.

In an operation led by the UK's National Crime Agency, investigators say they have seized £54m in cash, two tonnes of cocaine, 77 firearms including assault rifles, sub-machine guns and grenades and prevented contract killings.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said: "This is an amazing moment. We've known for ages that some organised criminals we have dealt with over the years but have never been able to bring to justice for the most serious offences, have been turning to encrypted devices they thought were completely impenetrable.

In just one raid, they found £5 million in cash!

Police infiltrate encrypted system, arrest hundreds 'leading secret criminal lives', and seize £54m

Many of the targets are said to have considered themselves "untouchable", posing as respectable, wealthy tycoons.

news.sky.com

This is a fucking big one, should get even more interesting once names start getting published.

 

[MrSki]

I saw this on the lunchtime news & thought there would have been a thread already. Yes will be interesting when the names come out. Across Europe too.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

60,000 of these phones floating around, 10,000 of which in the UK, they serve no other purpose than to aid high level criminality. 1/6 of all the world’s scumbags are in the UK, brings a tear to the eye it does.

 

[cupid_stunt]

And, they paid up to £3k for one of these phones, thinking they were safe.

 

[Espresso]

And, they paid up to £3k for one of these phones, thinking they were safe.

I hope they kept the receipt, so they can get their money back.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Mad story, some quite serious hacking going on.

How Police Secretly Took Over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime

Police monitored a hundred million encrypted messages sent through Encrochat, a network used by career criminals to discuss drug deals, murders, and extortion plots.

www.vice.com

It does show how people behave like absolute idiots when they start believing they're invulnerable.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Really would not want to be one of the people behind Encrochat right now btw.

 

[DotCommunist]

lester freemon approves of this story

 

[keybored]

Really would not want to be one of the people behind Encrochat right now btw.

Unless they're popping champagne corks right now and saying "We did it! They only went and fucking fell for it!".

 

[cupid_stunt]

Mad story, some quite serious hacking going on.

How Police Secretly Took Over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime

Police monitored a hundred million encrypted messages sent through Encrochat, a network used by career criminals to discuss drug deals, murders, and extortion plots.

www.vice.com

It does show how people behave like absolute idiots when they start believing they're invulnerable.

Only now is the astonishing scale of the operation coming into focus: It represents one of the largest law enforcement infiltrations of a communications network predominantly used by criminals ever, with Encrochat users spreading beyond Europe to the Middle East and elsewhere. French, Dutch, and other European agencies monitored and investigated "more than a hundred million encrypted messages" sent between Encrochat users in real time, leading to arrests in the UK, Norway, Sweden, France, and the Netherlands, a team of international law enforcement agencies announced Thursday.

Blimey!

 

[keybored]

There were suspicions that EncroChat were at best "working with" law enforcement as long ago as 2016.

 

[editor]

On Encrochat, criminals spoke openly and negotiated their deals in granular detail, with price lists, names of customers, and explicit references to the large quantities of drugs they sold, according to documents obtained by Motherboard from sources in and around the criminal world

The messages "have given insight in an unprecedented large number of serious crimes, including large, international drug shipments and drug labs, murders, thrashing robberies, extortions, robberies, grave assaults and hostage takings. International drug and money laundering corridors have become crystal clear," Dutch law enforcement said.

Oh my oh my. I hope they release some of the transcripts.

 

[LDC]

Really would not want to be one of the people behind Encrochat right now btw.

Some seriously quick bag packing and travel booking will have been going by all sorts of people. Although I assume by the time this hits the news most of them have been nicked already. Vice has covered this kind of stuff quite a lot.

 

[editor]

And I hope they get every fucker involved in the supply of guns and ammo.

 

[Flavour]

American cops will be thinking "wish we'd been involved with that so we could restore some of our credibility"

 

[ska invita]

interesting to see how many corrupt uk police get collared for involvement

 

[Orang Utan]

Reminds me of when they found all that money in Nigeria, leading to the internet wondering if that Nigerian prince who wanted to put it in our bank accounts was telling the truth after all:

Why piles of cash keep turning up in Nigeria - BBC News

In our series of letters from African journalists, writer Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani looks at the discovery of mystery cash piles in Nigeria.

www.google.co.uk

 

[Cloo]

Some seriously quick bag packing and travel booking will have been going by all sorts of people. Although I assume by the time this hits the news most of them have been nicked already. Vice has covered this kind of stuff quite a lot.

I wonder if they decided to strike at a time it would be harder to get out of the country....

 

[eatmorecheese]

Where do seriously rich crooks disappear to these days? Paraguay? Panama? Equatorial Guinea? I suppose they could always rock up in Moscow and pay some serious dosh to some goon.

Must say, it's heartening to see the big boys copping it, rather than the shotters and low level movers.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Where do seriously rich crooks disappear to these days? Paraguay? Panama? Equatorial Guinea?

These ones, prison.

 

[StoneRoad]

"Points finger and laughs - Ha-HAH"

About time some of these wide boys got their come-upp-ance.
Especially the violent, gun-toting ones.

(wonders how much of a role GCHQ had in cracking this one)

 

[Sprocket.]

No doubt all because of Pritti Patel’s leadership.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

I wonder if they decided to strike at a time it would be harder to get out of the country....

A report I read earlier stated that the lurgy made it that when they executed warrants the suspect was mostly at home.

Dominic Cummings = worse than Mr Bigg of the smack world.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

(wonders how much of a role GCHQ had in cracking this one)

Seems this one's down to the Cloggies and Froggies.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Where do seriously rich crooks disappear to these days?

Mayfair, Belgravia and so on.

The next level down tend to be equally as brazen, but mostly live quietly in their communities, again safe in the knowledge that they won;t be caught.

Now all we need is the NCA to bug the gentleman's clubs and we can nick the Mayfair level wrong'uns too.

 

[The39thStep]

Where do seriously rich crooks disappear to these days? Paraguay? Panama? Equatorial Guinea? I suppose they could always rock up in Moscow and pay some serious dosh to some goon.

Must say, it's heartening to see the big boys copping it, rather than the shotters and low level movers.

You’d be surprised about the amount that stay here aside from holidays tbh unless they are in the run . It’s safer in many cases drugs industry is famous for overseas assassinations . .

 

[two sheds]

Mayfair, Belgravia and so on.

The next level down tend to be equally as brazen, but mostly live quietly in their communities, again safe in the knowledge that they won;t be caught.

Now all we need is the NCA to bug the gentleman's clubs and we can nick the Mayfair level wrong'uns too.

Yes I was going to post that. I saw an international report saying that criminals (and tax dodgers etc) buying houses in London are one of the major reasons London house prices are so distorted.

 

[The39thStep]

interesting to see how many corrupt uk police get collared for involvement

That’s still around but these days intelligence , forensic accountants , the creation of the NCA etc make it a lot more difficult. You’d have get into the latter or be doing a deal with the latter tbh.

 

[The39thStep]

Yes I was going to post that. I saw an international report saying that criminals (and tax dodgers etc) buying houses in London are one of the major reasons London house prices are so distorted.

That and the Russians

 

[ska invita]

That’s still around but these days intelligence , forensic accountants , the creation of the NCA etc make it a lot more difficult. You’d have get into the latter or be doing a deal with the latter tbh.

the reports today explicitly mentioned that the sting has uncovered corrupt police involvement.... not sure how easy its going to be get them let off like theyd no doubt like... didnt suggest how many individuals came up