ENCROCHAT: WHATSAPP FOR CRIMINALS.













A photo of an EncroChat phone.


EncroChat the at present defunct Europe (France) based telecommunications network and service provider, that provided end to end encrypted telecommunication that was tailor made for criminals and their activities. The service was used by a who’s who of individual criminals and organizations, such as the infamous Sinaloa Cartel. Anyone familiar with the content on this blog, know that I focus heavily on crime and criminals, in upcoming post’s I will focus exhaustively on Dutch criminals and some of their sophisticated operations. Another reason for highlighting Dutch criminals, is the oft repeated mantra by Dutch politicians that the former Netherlands Antilles, where I live are corrupt and filled with criminals. This is my way of balancing the scales and crafting a more nuanced and realistic narrative, than the one the Dutch media is crafting pertinent to my home.

European police infiltrated EncroChat in a Europe wide investigation, in March and June 2020. As of the 7th of July 2020, at least 800 arrests have been made across Europe. On Friday July 3rd, 2020, News.sky.com carried an article on the EncroChat takedown by Europol and other European based policing agencies, the following is a quote from said article: ‘Police forces across Europe celebrated their infiltration of EncroChat on Thursday, disrupting international organised crime networks which were using the company's encrypted phones’. Leaked documents obtained by Motherboard (Vice.com), show that EncroChat’s phones were modified Android devices. Click the link below for the Vice article for more information.
https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/3aza95/how-police-secretly-took-over-a-global-phone-network-for-organised-crime

Europol said the devices were marketed as guaranteeing perfect anonymity and came with dual operating systems - a normal one and a hidden one to conduct secret messaging on. Physical modifications to the devices also meant the camera, microphone, GPS transponder and USB port were removed. Additionally, users could enter a PIN code which would immediately delete all of the messages on the device - as would happen in the event that wrong passwords were repeatedly entered. These functions ‘apparently were specially developed to make it possible to quickly erase compromising messages, for example at the time of arrest by the police’, according to Europol. ‘In addition, the device could be erased from a distance by the reseller/helpdesk,’ the agency added.
Vice.com’s US edition posted an article that said a bulletin written by the FBI, foe law enforcement agencies revealed that: ‘The FBI's “emerging intelligence report” is dated February 2020 and was exposed in the 270GB BlueLeaks data dump. It notes that traffickers from the Sinaloa transnational crime organization (TCO) were using EncroChat cryptophones as recently as October of last year, according to an unclassified case citation that was marked DEA sensitive and also law-enforcement sensitive by the FBI’.
According to Vice: ‘Sim cards used in these phones were made by Dutch telecom firm KPN, according to earlier Motherboard reporting. Encrochat also stripped these handsets of their camera, microphone, GPS, and USB terminals, and installed proprietary encrypted messaging programs on them, which routed texts through their own servers, “located offshore” in their datacenter, according to an archived EncroPhone webpage’.

Het Parool, a well-known Dutch media outlet, connected the EncroChat busts to the dismantling of 19 labs in the Netherlands, that produced MDMA in the Southern border regions that straddles the Netherlands and Belgium. Persons arrested worked with Mexicans based in the Netherlands to produce: ‘the much more lucrative crystal meth’.
Dutch newspaper NRC, wrote the following in an article: ‘the fact that Dutch pill makers have made a union with Mexican cartels for the production of crystal meth would not have become so clear without the hack at Encro’. The link below is the article referenced (note the article is in Dutch), using translate to read it if you do not speak Dutch.
In upcoming post’s, I will highlight the deep involvement of Dutch criminal organizations, with Mexican (TCO’s).














Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

EARTH WIND AND FIRE MUSICAL WIZARDRY: THE POWERFUL OCCULT BACKGROUND OF EWF.

Image
CHAPTER TWO: A BRIEF SYNOPSIS ON THE OCCULT, COCAINE, AND CANNABIS IN POPULAR WESTERN CULTURE: From Freud to Hollywood and Hip Hop.  Hip-Hop culture has subliminal occultic elements that they incorporate into their musical delivery. Examples of occult content in Hip-Hop are as follows the Hip-Hop duo outcast spoke of U.F.O, s in the beginning stages of their musical career, They openly advocated the smoking of Cannabis Sativa although Andre had gone on record in denouncing Cannabis Bigboi still maintains his use of Cannabis. Many other Hip-Hop groups and personalities more often than not promote the intake of Cannabis as a direct supernatural experience Red Man an infamous rapper has openly gone on record stating that he is a believer in the occult. The supergroup Wutang Clan is one of the most overt occultic groups. Their exaltation of all things oriental and their incorporation of ancient Chinese occult knowledge and Kabbalism into th
Read more

James Spencer Springette “Island Boys”: US VI Mafia.

Image
James Springette aka " Jimmy Juice ", in his younger days.  As regular readers of this Blog know, I post often about drugs gangs in the Caribbean. I have posted here before on James Spencer Springette aka “ Jimmy Juice”.  This post is updated information on Springette and some of the people he was involved with. U.S. Customs Arrest Fugitive In Venezuela Credit: Getty Images / Handout Editorial #: 1595372 Collection: Getty Images News MIAMI, FL - UNDATED: U.S. Customs officials meet fugitive James Spencer Springette in Miami after his arrest in Venezuela in this undated photo. Customs officials announced the arrest of Springette on November 6, 2002. Springette has been on the U.S. Custom's most wanted list since September 2001. According to Customs officials, Springette was the alleged ringleader of a major Caribbean drug-smuggling gang called 'The Island Boys.' (Photo by U.S. Customs/Getty Images). This wanted poster and
Read more

The No Limit Soldiers: Organized crime in the former Netherlands Antilles.

Image
The No Limit Soldiers are a gang that originated in the Koraal Specht neighborhood on the island of Curacao I have written before about the gang, specifically in the post “ Who is Responsible for the Murder of Helmin Wiels?” As regular readers of this Blog know, I post often pertinent to regional developments in the cocaine trafficking industry and its transnational character. I often make linkages between organized criminal activity originating out of Colombia and Mexico, and how it is dramatically changing forever the Caribbean social reality.   The No Limit Gang out of Koraal Specht Curaca is a perfect example of the above. What started as a street gang is now a viable highly organized sophisticated criminal enterprise . With structural alliances, with the Miami-based Haitian organized gang Zoe Pound ,  Colombian crime syndicates and more recently the Zetas from Mexico, the No Limit Gang is one of so-called “ Dutch” Caribbean’s most wealthy , sophisticated and organized crimin
Read more

The Ties That Bind Blood Medallions: Tupac Amaru Shakur an Historical Perspective.

Image
The genre of Hip-Hop music called Gangster Rap was best expressed in the person of, Tupac Amaru Shakur.  Bearing the name of an Incan mythological chief (Shining Serpent) Shakur from an early age felt that he was destined for greatness. Afeni Shakur was very active in the black liberation movement at the time. Her activities within the Black Panther Party would catapult her and her compatriots to worldwide fame. Afeni’s seminal role and work in the Panther 21 trial would establish her as a key, leader and thinker in the BPP and would seal her and her offsprings’ fates as perpetual enemies of the US state apparatus and its various intelligence agencies. Afeni Shakur: speaking at a Black Panther Party rally in the 1970’s. Afeni was jailed as part of the “Panther 21”, trial when they were accused of the ridiculous false charge of plotting to blow up, the New York City botanical gardens. Both Afeni and Assata were imprisoned at the same time, though on differen
Read more

James Springette: US VI DRUG KINGPIN.

 Sint Thomas based Drug Kingpin James Springette led an international drug empire. Springette had palatial homes in Colombia,Venezuela and many Caribbean islands . Springette is accused by the US government of importing over 1000 kilos of Cocaine to America on a weekly basis. Springette escaped from a Colombian prison and engaged police in numerous shootouts. Springette's drug empire was called the Island Boys .   ST. THOMAS — Drug kingpin James Springette and two of his henchmen, Elton Turnbull and Glenison Isaac, revealed in graphic detail Wednesday the intricate operations of a multinational drug organization that moved cocaine from Venezuela to Tortola then to St. Thomas and on to its final destination in North Carolina and how Gelean Mark was a pivotal figure in the drug cartel.   Several DEA agents also testified about the sting operation they implemented as they launched an investigation into Springette’s drug organization. ST. THOMAS — A federal jury heard elabor
Read more

STREET TALES. ALPO MARTINEZ.

Image
Street Tales, Grisly and Raw; Grim True-Crime Magazine Hits Home With Inmates By CHRIS HEDGES Published: December 06, 1999 Alberto Martinez, known as Alpo, once one of the biggest cocaine dealers in Harlem and Washington, was on the phone with Antoine Clark, the editor, reporter and photographer of F.E.D.S. magazine. Mr. Clark paced back and forth, slipping into prison jargon as he interviewed Mr. Martinez, who was talking from a maximum-security cell in a prison outside New York that he did not want named. Although Mr. Clark had to cajole and coax details out of him, Mr. Martinez wanted F.E.D.S. to publish his descriptions of some of the 14 murders to which he had confessed before he became a government witness. Criminal confessions and tales of the dark side of hip-hop life are a staple of F.E.D.S., for Finally Every Dimension of the Streets. The gruesome authenticity of these interviews has won a fast audience on Rikers Island, where inmates pass photocopies through
Read more