Hundreds arrested, tonnes of drugs seized as police intercept crime gang messages

DutchNews, July 2, 2020

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Police have arrested over a hundred suspects in the Netherlands as a result of messages intercepted on encrypted service provider EncroChat, Dutch police and Europol said on Thursday. 

Some 20 million exchanges by criminals on the network were read by police before they could be encrypted in what police call ‘an earthquake for organised crime’. EncroChat has around 50,000 users worldwide, 12,000 of whom live in the Netherlands. 

The investigation has so far led to the arrest of more than 100 suspects in the Netherlands and the seizure of eight tonnes of cocaine and 1.2 tonnes of crystal meth.  In total, 19 synthetic drugs labs have been dismantled and police have confiscated dozens of (automatic) fire weapons, expensive watches and 25 cars, and almost €20m in cash. 

In addition, a large number of suspects have also been arrested in several countries which were not participating in the investigation, including in the UK, Sweden and Norway. Many of these investigations were connected with international drug trafficking and violent criminal activities, Europol said. 

According to the Daily Mail, in Britain, 746 people have been arrested. London’s Met force has detained 132 people – including in the most serious organised crime network in the capital – and seized more than £13.3m in cash as well as machine guns and narcotics. 

More arrests are very likely to follow in the coming period, Europol said. 

2017 

The investigation was set up in 2017 with French police when it came across an increasing number of EncroChat phones, and assisted by European crime fighting agencies Europol and Eurojust. France has not yet gone public with the results of the investigation on its territory. 

The operation came to an abrupt end two weeks ago when EncroChat became aware of the software used by police to infiltrate the site. It then told its users to get rid of the phones.‘It was like sitting in on a meeting of criminals’, Dutch police chief Jannine van den Berg said. 

It is the fourth time a network used by criminals is infiltrated by police. In 2016 the server of network provider Ennetcom yielded millions of messages whose content is used to get the group surrounding notorious criminal Ridouan Ta

Dutch government invests €20m in Eindhoven photonic chip maker

DutchNews, June 30, 2020

Inside a Smart Photonics lab. Photo: Bart van Overbeeke / Hollandse Hoogte

The Dutch government has invested €20m into Eindhoven company Smart Photonics to make sure the technology stays in the Netherlands, junior economic affairs minister Mona Keijzer has confirmed to MPs. 

The company produces chips which work on the basis of light rather than electricity, which means they can process data more quickly and use less energy. The investment will allow the company to scale up production, the company said in a statement. 

Smart Photonics had been looking for investment since last year and that there was interest from Asia, the Financieele Dagblad reported earlier. 

Keijzer told MPs she had been made aware of the foreign interest at the end of last year and decided to invest directly in the company to make sure it, and its suppliers, remain in the Netherlands. 

The action also fits in with European Commission call on member states to act against ‘undesirable developments’ in certain markets. Phototonic chips are considered a strategic key industry by Brussels. 

In total, Smart Photonic has raised €35m to €40m, some of which has also come from KPN. 

‘There is a need for a new generation of photonic integrated circuits that can transport data faster, be cost-effective and more sustainable, in order to keep up with the immense amount of data generated at a very high speed by advancing technologies like IoT, AI, augmented reality and autonomous driving,’ said Samir Ahmad, head of investment at KPN Ventures.