German drug investigators have deprived criminal users of Encrochat crypto phones of access to hundreds of millions of euros.
This emerges from a confidential police document.
Accordingly, since 2020, officials have obtained judicial seizures of more than 319 million euros.
Of this, 187 million euros have already been secured, for example in the form of real estate, cars and cash.
Since the value of many luxury goods has not yet been determined, this sum is likely to increase.
In addition, the investigations against the approximately 3,000 users have not yet been completed.
In spring 2020, French and Dutch investigators managed to infiltrate the server of the crypto service, which is popular in the underworld.
12.1 million intercepted chat messages affected users from Germany.
According to the paper, officers found tons of drugs and hundreds of firearms during searches.
The mafia hunters are currently waiting for the complete transmission of another hacked data set.
It is about the crypto provider Sky ECC.
Its customer base in Germany is said to be five times larger than that of Encrochat.
So far, the Federal Criminal Police Office has been able to identify almost 700 users of the provider.
DER SPIEGEL 8/2022, page 26
Contact: joerg.diehl@spiegel.de, roman.lehberger@spiegel.de
