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

[not-bono-ever]

iyfv;iyfv/iyfv/iyfv/iyufv/iyufv/

 

[clicker]

Anything where you are providing a service that doesn’t depend on materials that much. Nail bars are great as are car washes as it’s almost impossible to show wether a place did 15 people or 150 customers in any given day and it’s normal to pay cash. If I had to launder loads of cash I’d have two nail bars and a car wash and pay my taxes on time.

And a self service launderette.

 

[Part 2]

Had a message on WhatsApp from a fella I bought stuff from about a year ago suggesting to remove all conversations.....everyone's getting spooked.

 

[keybored]

iyfv;iyfv/iyfv/iyfv/iyufv/iyufv/

Let's see you crack that encryption, spooks.

 

[2hats]

Let's see you crack that encryption, spooks.

Why bother when you can subvert the keyboard and keylog?

 

[dylanredefined]

Why bother when you can subvert the keyboard and keylog?

Or just waterboard the wrong un til they decode it themselves. Lots of scary excuses to violate your human rights out there.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

The thing is about hacking is that it's just being able to access information that you're not supposed to. It's always included "social engineering" - say, fooling a call centre operative into giving you someone else's password. Just beating or blackmailing or bribing or intimidating the password out of them would also be hacking, if quite low-tech, but the feds are good at the low-tech stuff, the methods haven't changed for thousands of years.

What I suspect here is a combination, whereby the feds have turned somebody within the phone company or their manufacturing or whatever who has let them add spyware to the normal update system for Encrochat. I don't think it would be a straight software exploit - that's generally not possible unless people have been really stupid. But somebody also had to write that spyware and generally cops aren't able to do that, so the source of that is interesting.

 

[two sheds]

And was a neat trick getting round the encryption by accessing the stream before it was encrypted

(which is as I recall how they did it)

 

[likesfish]

2nd hand car dealer and scrap merchants seen as well dodgy working for or having close relatives black marks for joining the prison service.

 

[cupid_stunt]

They seem to still be mopping people up, various reports popping-up on regional newspaper websites of further arrests, including one yesterday in the Crossmaglen area of Co Armagh, with a guy charged with a number of offences, including conspiracy to commit murder. LINK

This report says the National Crime Agency has unearthed a number of messages indicating some of the criminals were already afraid of the NCA before they became aware of the hacking of EuroChat, and with a threat from the NCA that this is just the start.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) has found messages including "be scared of NCA" and "the police are winning this year", among millions of exchanges from a recently hacked communications system.

Unearthed messages show criminals were afraid of them even before EncroChat was intercepted, the agency, which targets serious and organised crime in the UK, said.

Other messages included: "That's naughty when the big boys like NCA and flying squad come its not good they won't stop", "NCA as you know well are sophisticated and relentless" and "thanks bro the police scoring goals motherf******".

One criminal also claimed: "I'm moving my family from UK this year because NCA is getting too smart," while another said the NCA is not "f***ing about".

In one, an offender says: "Yeh its NCA wanna worry about," and another warns "If ye got that NCA on ye m8/ ye got problems for sure and heavy bird m8."

NCA deputy director of investigations, Matt Horne - who was also gold commander for the operation, warned criminals "this is just the start".

He said: "Operation Venetic has targeted middle-ranking and top tier criminals, including offenders who've previously been untouchable.

"The messages are a reflection of UK law enforcement's standing in their eyes - and they were before they realised their communication system had been infiltrated. Who knows what they think now?

"But they should know this is the just the start of Operation Venetic and the last thing we'll be is complacent. We are not going to take our foot off the gas.

EncroChat: Recovered messages 'show organised crime bosses fear' elite National Crime Agency, police say

One offender warns to "be scared of NCA", while another says the agency's attention means "problems for sure and heavy bird m8."

news.sky.com

 

[two sheds]

You'd think they'd have used untraceable phones and things to still make it impossible to charge them. Posting up pics of friends and rellies is a bit of a giveaway though. Overconfidence is a bugger.

 

[LDC]

More news in Europe about this. Grim fuckers.

Dutch arrests after discovery of 'torture chamber' in sea containers

Police raids offer chilling insight into increasingly violent criminal underworld

www.theguardian.com

 

[Dogsauce]

Wonder if there‘s any political stuff caught in this net? Whilst the cost would have excluded anything from the ‘activist’ end of things, could see some of the crooked right wing stuff linked to hedge fund weirdos using something like this when arranging covert political donations etc.

 

[kenny g]

Where do seriously rich crooks disappear to these days?

Essex?

 

[Humberto]

I wonder to what extent this has actually dealt a blow to European drug trafficking? We all risk judgment for our doings anyway. If you will allow it for a moment: for all their temporary power and terror, there will be weeping, wailing and 'gnashing of teeth' in the end. The whole empire is built on stupidity. It's cunts on both side of the law. Prohibition is very lucrative, as is law and order posturing.

 

[WouldBe]

iyfv;iyfv/iyfv/iyfv/iyufv/iyufv/

Come here and say that and see what happens.

 

[kenny g]

I wonder to what extent this has actually dealt a blow to European drug trafficking?

Well, a few million euros, tons of chowder, busts of millions of pills, torture chambers. It has clearly hit things for some groups. However, I suspect many others are too sensible to rely on tech gizmos for security.

 

[existentialist]

Well, a few million euros, tons of chowder, busts of millions of pills, torture chambers. It has clearly hit things for some groups. However, I suspect many others are too sensible to rely on tech gizmos for security.

Or at least big mainstream tech gizmos that, once penetrated, can lead to many, many people.

 

[josef1878 2.0]

Looks like the fella accused and cleared of ordering Dale Cregans killing spree has been living near me. Charged with drugs conspiracy and money laundering this time

 

[dylanredefined]

You'd think they'd have used untraceable phones and things to still make it impossible to charge them. Posting up pics of friends and rellies is a bit of a giveaway though. Overconfidence is a bugger.

You could do it that way complicated and difficult though. Encrypted phones would be a godsend for smuggling outfit.

 

[two sheds]

Encrypted phones would be a godsend for smuggling outfit.

But not in this case.

 

[dylanredefined]

But not in this case.

Well till they were hacked they were. I kind of feel sort of sorry for the Mr big built his criminal network up got a reputation for reliable delivery. Now he is on the run or in ail as he fell for the cell phone salesman patter.
Well would if his business didnt add to the sum total of human misery.

 

[The39thStep]

Looks like the fella accused and cleared of ordering Dale Cregans killing spree has been living near me. Charged with drugs conspiracy and money laundering this time

Atkinson?

 

[josef1878 2.0]

Atkinson?

Yeh

 

[josef1878 2.0]

Hadn't seen his picture until this week but I've seen him knocking about for a while....he got done for mortgage fraud as well round here a few years ago

 

[kenny g]

The MEN report is hilarious. These idiots must have been splattering their activities by 'secure text' to all and sundry. The very fact that half a million pills have been found suggests they were insanely confident in their mobile's security. Morons. The 34 Greater Manchester people charged after 'biggest ever police operation'

 

[alex_]

You'd think they'd have used untraceable phones and things to still make it impossible to charge them. Posting up pics of friends and rellies is a bit of a giveaway though. Overconfidence is a bugger.

regular opsec failings, mixing business and personal on the same device

good talk on this here https://grugq.github.io/presentations/COMSEC beyond encryption.pdf

 

[planetgeli]

The MEN report is hilarious. These idiots must have been splattering their activities by 'secure text' to all and sundry. The very fact that half a million pills have been found suggests they were insanely confident in their mobile's security. Morons. The 34 Greater Manchester people charged after 'biggest ever police operation'

Half a million Es.

Which is nothing compared to the 28 million Etizolam pills seized from a not-so-secret lab. (This was UK but nothing to do with the Manchester crews).

 

[ska invita]

I remember the press estimating in 1992 2 million es were being dropped every week

 

[two sheds]

clumsy twats








thought I'd get that in first