Security News > 2023 > May > 'Top three Balkans drug kingpins' arrested after cops crack their Sky ECC chats

European police arrested three people in Belgrade described as "The biggest" drug lords in the Balkans in what cops are chalking up to another win in dismantling Sky ECC's encrypted messaging app last year.

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 by the cops and others.

Back in March 2021, Sky Global closed up shop following raids in Belgium and the Netherlands on Sky ECC users and resellers.

American prosecutors indicted Sky Global chief exec Jean-Francois Eap for selling encrypted chat devices to drug dealers with the intent of helping them evade law enforcement.

The three alleged kingpins cuffed in Belgrade this week were all identified via Sky ECC data, we're told.

Like Sky ECC, these subscription-based communication apps were favored by criminals to hide their illegal operations from the law, and data from the trio of messaging services has been used as evidence to garner thousands of arrests.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/05/13/drug_arrests_sky_ecc/