Security News > 2021 > April > Belgian police seize 28 tons of cocaine after 'cracking' Sky ECC's chat app encryption

The Belgian plod says it seized 27.64 tons of cocaine worth €1.4bn from shipments into Antwerp in the past six weeks after defeating the encryption in the Sky ECC chat app to read drug smugglers' messages.

"During a judicial investigation into a potential service criminal organization suspected of knowingly providing encrypted telephones to the criminal environment, police specialists managed to crack the encrypted messages from Sky ECC," the Belgian police claimed, CNN reports.

Sky ECC was a subscription-based end-to-end encrypted messaging app made by Sky Global and bundled on Google, Apple, Nokia, and BlackBerry handsets stripped of their GPS units, cameras, and microphones - the idea being that you could chat via text with other users without fear of being snooped on.

Last month, the US government indicted the CEO of Sky Global Jean-François Eap, and a distributor, for "Knowingly and intentionally participated in a criminal enterprise that facilitated the transnational importation and distribution of narcotics through the sale and service of encrypted communications devices."

Shortly afterwards European police pulled off a combined operation and shut down Sky Global and swooped on it users and distributors.

Word of the massive coke haul comes just a year after French and Dutch police took down EncroChat, a similar app that was allegedly used to facilitate criminal activity.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/04/08/sky_ecc_drugs/