🔗 EncroChat

🔗 International relations 🔗 France 🔗 Italy 🔗 Telecommunications 🔗 United Kingdom 🔗 Law Enforcement 🔗 Netherlands 🔗 Crime and Criminal Biography 🔗 Crime and Criminal Biography/Organized crime

EncroChat was a Europe-based communications network and service provider that offered modified smartphones allowing encrypted communication among subscribers. It was used primarily by organized crime members to plan criminal activities. Police infiltrated the network between at least March and June 2020 during a Europe-wide investigation. An unidentified source associated with EncroChat announced on the night of 12–13 June 2020 that the company would cease operations because of the police operation.

The service had around 60,000 subscribers at the time of its closure. As a result of police being able to read unencrypted EncroChat messages, at least 1,000 arrests had been made across Europe as of 22 December 2020.