SkyECC exposed the murderers in Vari and Corfu – 39 accused
Encrypted conversations via SkyECC linked members of a Montenegrin gang to murders in Greece. Criminal cases against 39 people, of whom only one has been arrested in the country.
How the "cracked" SkyECC application brought executions in Vari and Corfu to light
Police from the Attica Security Department received critical data from Europol that linked encrypted conversations via the SkyECC application to the murders committed in Vari and Corfu, according to ieidiseis.gr.
The SkyECC application was designed by a communications company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. Police report that the company modified telephone devices by installing the application on them, which remained hidden and known exclusively to each respective user. Each device had a unique PIN code, whilst the exchanged messages were encrypted and "self-destructed" after a time period determined by the user.
In order to "crack" the application, police and judicial authorities from France, the Netherlands and Belgium — with the support of Eurojust and Europol — formed a Joint Investigation Team with the code name "OTFLimit". The team managed to gain access to the encrypted conversations that had been exchanged via the platform.
Greek Police subsequently submitted requests for European Investigation Orders to the Special Department of the Paris Tribunal for Organised Crime. Through this procedure, Greek officials were granted SkyECC data describing the planning, preparation and execution of the homicides in Greece.
The "war" of two Montenegrin clans
In 2010, the criminal organisation "Kotor Clan" was founded in Montenegro, with its main activity being the trafficking of cocaine on a global scale. In 2014, following the loss of 200 kilograms of cocaine in Spain, the organisation split into two rival groups: the "Kavac" and the "Skaljari" — names that originated from two villages in the Kotor province.
Since then, the deadly feud between the two groups has cost the lives of approximately 60 people, both in Montenegro and Serbia as well as elsewhere in Europe. Members of one group settled in Athens approximately four years ago, using forged identity documents and frequently changing their place of residence to avoid detection. Their rivals, however, located them and murdered them in Vari and Corfu.
Police formed criminal cases against a total of 39 people. Only one of these has been arrested in Greece. The rest are located in various countries around the world, whilst several of them are already serving sentences in foreign prisons.
Source: ieidiseis.gr