A new column by crime reporter Willem-Jan Joachems. Would you like to read the column sooner? Then subscribe to the Crime Newsletter of Omroep Brabant.
‘Wazeggie?’, said B2 when he spoke to Vlugge Japie and De Baron through the walkie-talkie. They were the villains in the television series Bassie en Adriaan. In the eyes of children in the 1980s, including me, this is what crooks looked like. Fedora, sunglasses, dirty coat, wrong clothes and a big mustache: old-fashioned weird guys. A new crime column by Willem-Jan Joachems
I see quite a lot of crooks every week. Maybe 25 this week. They don’t look like Bassie and Adriaan’s. But there are similarities: they often also use nicknames such as B2, Vlugge Japie and De Baron. That is not strange at all, because committing crimes under your real name is not convenient. You have to hide. But again not quite.
Criminals need to talk to each other about drugs, money and guns. Doing business, they would call it themselves. They sometimes have to improvise when things go wrong. If they don’t understand each other, maybe they’ll say ‘Wazeggie?’
Bless and curse
Phone is ideal, but it’s a blessing and a curse. Because the police regularly listens and reads along. Criminals fall into that trap time and time again.
We have known such a crypto mobile since at least 2015. The fact that you have one is already suspicious. Just seeing him make contact with a cell tower is a sign to the investigative services that something illegal is happening. Because most people don’t have such an encrypted phone.
Fake
Why are those cryptophones still being used? I hear lawyers say it’s mostly laziness. Everyone has a cell phone. They look normal. The crypto app is hidden under a calculator or fake Netlix account. That’s not the problem.
It’s about the computer server where everything comes in. It is vulnerable and the crooks often forget that. Connect the cable and you can read along. Hack and you can read along.
Old acquaintances
Now that Exclu again. At the beginning of February, 45 people were arrested for working with that app. Just look this week and next week in the Brabant courts: all known criminals with a criminal record from here to Tokyo sometimes. Some have just been sentenced, others are in the middle of their trial or awaiting a verdict. Go, the next process is already looming. Years in prison hang over her head.
The police are happy with it. Gold mine, all that evidence. Some puzzling, because there are already a billion messages.
Baby monitor
But I sometimes wonder if the crooks should just go back to the time of B2, Vlugge Japie and De Baron. That crypto remains a pitfall. Why not Morse code or talking via walkie-talkie, baby monitor and a 27MC bakkie. No one listens or records. It evaporates into the ether. But who does such an old-fashioned thing?
Yes, creative criminals who do things slightly differently and remain under the radar. I’m guessing there are people who make their money quietly like that. It is a way of life and they keep going, just like the crooks of Bassie and Adriaan. Wazeggie?