Europol raids Balkan cartel: 2.7 tonnes of cocaine seized, six arrests
Europol has dismantled a large cocaine smuggling network importing the drug from South America to Europe. Eight countries assisted in the operation, with intercepted encrypted messages playing a key role.
Europol dismantles Balkan cocaine cartel with help of encrypted applications
Europol announced on Friday the dismantling of a large smuggling network that was importing cocaine from South America to Europe by sea. According to The Register, the operation, led by Serbia, was carried out on 24 August and involved 15 house searches, six arrests and the seizure of 2.7 tonnes of cocaine along with two luxury cars, valuable watches and approximately €550,000 in cash.
The investigation, which has been ongoing since January 2022, involved Brazil, Croatia, France, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Slovenia. Authorities additionally froze "a large number" of bank accounts and real estate deals, with financial investigations still ongoing.
Smuggling vessel and routes to West Africa
The cartel used a ship to transport multi-tonne consignments of cocaine from Brazil to the EU. According to Europol, ship captains holding Ukrainian and Czech citizenship travelled repeatedly to Cabo Verde or other locations in West Africa to prepare the vessel for smuggling operations.
Recently obtained operational information revealed that the ship was in Brazil at that time. Brazilian and Spanish police monitored the vessel further, which enabled a coordinated intervention on the "action day" of 24 August.
Among those arrested was one of the cartel's main organisers, a Serbian citizen. Police established his involvement — along with alleged associates — through monitoring of encrypted messages.
Infiltration of EncroChat, Sky ECC and ANOM as a turning point
Europol did not specify exactly which encrypted application was crucial to gathering evidence in this case. However, it highlighted that "the dismantling of three encrypted communication tools used by criminals — EncroChat, Sky ECC and ANOM — provided international criminal prosecution with an unprecedented insight into criminal networks and their operations."
All three services, which operated on a subscription basis and advertised secure encryption, were infiltrated and shut down by authorities in recent years. Criminals used them to plan operations and hide their activities from authorities. Data obtained from these platforms has since enabled thousands of arrests worldwide.
Europol also underlined that these communication platforms demonstrate the "significant role of criminal networks, composed in large part of citizens from Balkan countries, in global cocaine trafficking." This is why the Balkan Cartel Operational Task Force was established, within which the August raids were carried out.
At least the second such blow in 2023
This represents at least the second such cartel dismantling since May, which European police attribute to infiltration of encrypted applications. On 11 May, three individuals described as the "largest" Balkan drug barons were arrested in Belgrade, along with 10 other suspects in Serbia and 10 alleged cartel members in Belgium, Serbia, Peru and the Netherlands — 23 arrests in total. Europol attributed these arrests to the previous year's dismantling of the Sky ECC service.
Source: The Register