BRUSSELS (AP) – Belgian police made 48 arrests on Tuesday during an unprecedented operation targeting organized crime, after investigators cracked down on an encrypted communications network popular with criminals, prosecutors said.
About 200 searches involving more than 1,500 police officers, including special units, were carried out by 11.5 million people simultaneously, the federal prosecutor’s office said. Police seized 1.2 million euros in cash, along with firearms, jewelery, diamonds, police uniforms and luxury cars.
Meanwhile, Dutch police and prosecutors said in a statement that they had arrested 30 suspects in the country on Tuesday and searched 75 houses and offices.
Belgian prosecutors say investigators cracked down on the encrypted messaging service Sky ECC and intercepted a billion messages during their two-year investigation which also helped seize more than 17 tonnes of cocaine.
According to the survey, there are approximately 171,000 telephones equipped with the Sky ECC service around the world.
Searches started around 05:00 and took place mainly in the Antwerp region. There were no major incidents, police said, adding that the operation was dismantling several international organizations specializing in drug trafficking.
With thousands of shipping containers reaching Antwerp every day, the Belgian port city is one of Europe’s most important access points for cocaine. Trade in the city has recently led to a resurgence of violence, with gun battles and grenade attacks.
Last year, authorities in Belgium and three other countries dismantled a drug trafficking network that sent hundreds of millions of dollars of cocaine to Western Europe. The investigation, which began when a container containing 2.8 tonnes of cocaine was found in Antwerp, discovered an international network with compounds in at least four European countries and South America.
Dutch police and prosecutors seized 28 firearms in the port city of Rotterdam. Prosecutors earlier in the investigation intercepted thousands of kilograms of cocaine, heroin and hashish.
Law enforcers have managed to gain access to hundreds of millions of messages from users of the encrypted messaging service Sky ECC, Dutch prosecutors said.
According to the statement of prosecution, the Sky ECC server was taken offline on Tuesday and seized by Dutch authorities.
Prosecutors said they were able to prevent dozens of planned crimes, including kidnappings and murders, while monitoring the encrypted messages.
The operation follows a similar crackdown in July last year when European police cracked down on another encrypted communications network called EncroChat, enabling them to monitor criminals in real time while planning drug shipments, arms deals and assassinations.
Prosecutors said Tuesday that many former EncroChat users migrated to Sky ECC last year.
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Corder reported from The Hague, The Netherlands.