Drug trafficking: historic convictions in EncroChat case in Bordeaux
Bordeaux court has convicted drug traffickers using the EncroChat platform for the first time in France. The ringleader received an eight-year prison sentence.
France's first convictions in the EncroChat case
Bordeaux court convicted several drug traffickers involved in the EncroChat case on Thursday, 24 March 2022. The ringleader received an eight-year prison sentence, whilst his accomplices received three years. According to Les Numériques, this was the first conviction in France for offences uncovered through data interception from this encrypted communications network.
EncroChat, publicly discovered in July 2020, was not merely a messaging service like WhatsApp or Telegram. The system offered customers heavily modified Android or BlackBerry smartphones, sold for €1,000 each with a six-month subscription charged at approximately €1,500. The devices had their GPS chips, cameras and microphones removed, whilst messages passed through the company's unregistered servers.
In June 2020, investigators from Eurojust estimated that 50,000 of these terminals were in circulation worldwide, including 12,000 in the Netherlands, used primarily by criminals. In Gironde, gendarmes from the Research Section had detected drug imports transiting through Belgium towards Bordeaux and Brittany. A vehicle fitted to conceal narcotics and €13,000 in cash were seized.
The platform had been detected in France as early as 2017 during earlier police operations. Since these initial convictions, other cases linked to EncroChat are expected to be heard by the courts in the coming months and years. This case is part of a series of international operations against encrypted communication networks: the FBI conducted an operation against the Anom messaging service in 2021, leading to the arrest of 800 criminals within days.
Source: Les Numériques