BRUSSELS (AP) – Belgian police made 48 arrests on Tuesday during an unprecedented large-scale operation against organized crime after investigators broke an encrypted communications network popular with criminals, prosecutors said.
About 200 searches mobilizing more than 1,500 police officers, including special units, were carried out simultaneously across the country on 11.5 million people, said the Federal Public Ministry. The police seized 1.2 million euros ($ 1.4 million) in cash, in addition to firearms, jewelry, diamonds, police uniforms and luxury cars.
Meanwhile, Dutch police and prosecutors said in a statement that they arrested 30 suspects across the country on Tuesday and searched 75 homes and offices.
Belgian prosecutors said the investigators had breached the Sky ECC encrypted messaging service and intercepted a billion messages during their two-year investigation, which also helped seize more than 17 tons of cocaine.
According to the investigation, there are about 171,000 phones equipped with the Sky ECC service worldwide.
The surveys started around 5 am and took place mainly in the Antwerp region. There were no major incidents, the police said, adding that the operation had dismantled several international organizations specializing in drug trafficking.
With thousands of containers arriving in Antwerp every day, the Belgian port city is one of Europe’s main ports of entry for cocaine. Traffic in the city has sparked a wave of violence recently, with gunfire and grenade attacks taking place.
Last year, authorities in Belgium and three other countries dismantled a drug trafficking network that sent hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cocaine to Western Europe. The investigation, which began when a 2.8-ton container of cocaine was found in Antwerp, found an international network with connections in at least four European countries and South America.
Dutch police and prosecutors seized 28 firearms in the port city of Rotterdam. At the beginning of the investigation, they intercepted thousands of kilograms (pounds) of cocaine, heroin and hashish, prosecutors said.
Law enforcement officers “were able to gain access to hundreds of millions of messages” from Sky ECC encrypted messaging users, according to a statement from Dutch prosecutors.
The Sky ECC server was taken down on Tuesday and seized by Dutch authorities, according to the prosecution’s statement.
Prosecutors said that while monitoring the encrypted messages, they were able to prevent dozens of planned crimes, including kidnappings and murders.
The operation followed a similar crackdown in July last year, when European police broke down another encrypted communications network called EncroChat, allowing them to monitor criminals in real time while planning drug shipments, arms deals and murders.
Prosecutors said on Tuesday that many former EncroChat users migrated to Sky ECC last year.
___
Corder reported from The Hague, Holland.