The police raided about forty places in Brabant during a major action on Friday. In total, the Brabant police units arrested seventeen suspects. They are suspected of drug trafficking and money laundering, among other things. The action stemmed from a major police hack of cryptocommunication service Exclu, a telephone network that is widely used by criminals.
About five months ago, the police managed to break into the communication service full of encrypted messages. From that moment on, the police could read along with the messages between criminals. In recent days, this led to a total of 79 searches and 42 arrests in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, among others.
It is now clear that Brabant also plays an important role in the research. For example, homes were searched in Tilburg on Friday morning and a horse shed was raided in Hilvarenbeek. The raid of a car company in Berlicum last Wednesday was also part of 26Lytham, as the major investigation is officially called.
Hard drugs and weapons
During the raids in our province, various types of drugs, weapons, ammunition and large amounts of cash were found. A total of thirteen men between the ages of 23 and 57 were arrested in the Zeeland-West Brabant police region. It could also include suspects from Zeeland.
The East Brabant police region has announced that four people have been arrested there. It concerns three men and a woman between the ages of 19 and 44. Because the police unit cooperated with that of Gelderland, not all suspects may be from Brabant.
More arrests
All suspects are currently in custody. They will be brought before the examining magistrate on Monday. Police do not rule out further arrests.
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