Global cat-and-mouse game with criminal gangs ‘started’ after telephone network is dismantled

This allowed them to view live messages, images, and videos sent through the system, all without the criminals knowing. French police, who previously compromised the Encrochat encryption platform in 2020 alongside Dutch police, identified the company’s operators in Australia and its financial assets in the US.

The French found that Australia and Ireland were the two largest users of this network of the nine countries that were part of the network.

French police informed Europol, which previously helped with Encrochat, about their information. Europol set up an operational task force in March 2022, bringing in Ireland and Australia, as well as France, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands, in addition to Australia, the US and Canada.

Europol was able to deploy its considerable technical and analytical resources to investigate and document the messages.

Mr Lecouffe said: “After more than three years of hard work, we have worked with nine countries to dismantle an instrument that provided a lifeline to serious organised crime.”

He pointed out that the messages sent through the network related to large-scale drug trafficking, arms trafficking, extreme violence and ‘money laundering on an industrial scale’.

The Garda National Crime and Security Intelligence Service (GNCSIS) was involved in the intelligence phase with Europol. The Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) became involved when the operational phase began two years ago.

Detective Chief Superintendent Seamus Boland of GNDOCB said four Irish gangs were involved, including the “primary” organised crime group in Ireland. There were two other drugs gangs and a fourth group specialising in supplying and operating telephones.

In Australia and Italy, the mafia, motorcycle gangs and groups from Korea and the Middle East are active.

Gardaí revealed that GNDOCB seized 118kg of cocaine and €50,000 in cash linked to the gangs prior to the co-ordinated searches on Monday and Tuesday. Six people were arrested during searches of six properties.

During this week’s operation, GNDOCB searched 27 properties across Dublin and Wexford and recovered 42 suspected Ghost-encrypted devices, 153 mobile phones and laptops, and 200 SIM cards. They also seized €300,000 in cash, two cryptocurrency keys, six Rolex watches and a Range Rover jeep.

Gardaí discovered 100kg of cocaine hidden in a hydraulically operated storage compartment in an articulated lorry parked at a remote farm in Wexford. Four men were arrested in connection with the incident. A fifth man was arrested in Dublin.

In total, 51 arrests were made internationally, 38 of them in Australia. As Mr Lecouffe said: “It was really a global game of cat and mouse and today the game is over.”