Exactly one year later it turned out that 276 new investigations had already been opened and 888 suspects had been arrested. More than 90 tons of drugs were also seized at the time, good for a street value of 4.5 billion euros.
But the research on SKY ECC continues to grow in huge proportions. According to the most recent figures – counted at the beginning of this week – 1,230 people have already been arrested in the context of the cracked message service. “It concerns 233 people who were arrested in new files and 997 people who were arrested in the context of already existing files, which were enriched with information from SKY ECC,” said Jana Verdegem, spokeswoman for the federal police.
However, the many arrests have not yet led to many convictions. Most of the investigations are still ongoing and there are also many files pending in court.