Police and the Public Prosecution Service (OM) think that a man from Eindhoven was one of the people behind Encrochat, the infamous messaging service with about 12,000 criminal users in our country alone. By secretly breaking into the telephone network, the police gained a spectacular insight into the criminal circuit. For example, the torture chamber in Wouwse Plantage and a money warehouse were discovered. Killers, coke dealers and drug labs also came into the picture. The millions of chats yield piles of evidence to this day.
The 47-year-old from Eindhoven was already arrested in June, somewhere in the Netherlands, along with at least two other suspects about whom nothing else is known. They are suspected of being a member of a criminal organization: Encrochat.
Firearm
A firearm and ammunition were also found at the Eindhoven resident, which is why he remained in jail longer. The other two have already been released. The court ruled on Wednesday that the man may be released from his cell on Thursday, pending trial.
The Public Prosecution Service does not want to say much about the case, except that this concerns three suspects who were in the so-called ‘middle management’. That may indicate that they are not seen as the big bosses.
Eavesdropping
Encrochat was a messaging service, like WhatsApp. The main computer was in northern France. Users had cryptophones that could not be ‘eavesdropped’, or so the users thought. Because in several previous cases, such as with the company Ennetcom, the police were still able to find the central computers, confiscate them and see all chats and photos. The provided a wealth of evidence.
At the beginning of 2020, experts were able to penetrate the computer of the company Encrochat. The police started the investigation with the code name 26Lemont. In the utmost secrecy, the detectives got their hands on more than 20 million messages. They even got to watch live. In this way assassination attempts could be thwarted.
Special were the discovery of a torture chamber with an underworld prison in Wouwse Plantage and the ‘Geldpakhuis van Oom Dagobert’ in Eindhoven, the largest money storage ever found.
The raid on the torture chamber in Wouwse Plantage was filmed by the police.
Waiting for privacy settings…
Pino, Ieniemienie and Cheese sandwich
The millions of Encrochat messages are evidence in hundreds of studies. Every so often, the police pick up new suspects, thanks to chats they sent years ago.
Suspects did so under pseudonyms such as Pino, Ieniemienie or Cheese sandwich but the police were able to find them anyway thanks to appointments, private photos and personal details such as birthdays.
Lawsuit
The arrest of the Eindhoven resident was already reported on July 3 by, among others, the NOS, but without details. Because the Public Prosecution Service didn’t want to say anything at the time. Wednesday was the first public hearing before the court in Rotterdam. The session was not announced.
The national prosecutor’s office of the Public Prosecution Service only confirms that the hearing was public. A press release was issued afterwards. It states that the Public Prosecution Service sees these suspects as ‘helpful’ to all crimes committed by the ‘criminal clientele’. Both the Dutch and French authorities are looking for more known suspects. International search warrants have been issued.
Privacy violated?
Lawyers are very critical. They think that the police and the judiciary have, as it were, raked everything in with a large dragnet without knowing who and what they would encounter. Also potentially innocent users.
With that method, they would have seriously violated privacy. Lawyers want judges to rule out 26Lemont as evidence. But so far, courts are accepting the underworld chats as evidence. The discussion is far from over.
Waiting for privacy settings…
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