International Police Hack Encrypted Phones Exposing Global Crime Networks

Law enforcement agencies have increasingly used technology to infiltrate organized crime networks, exemplified by the 2020 international police hack of the encrypted phone network EncroChat, which provided 74 days of covert access to communications among global crime groups involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, kidnapping, and murder. This operation, known as Operation Venetic, exposed the human and operational side of these criminal organizations, revealing chilling details such as the use of coded language for weapons and violent acts, and intercepted more than 150 explicit threats to life in six weeks—a stark contrast to the usual annual figures. The resulting documentary series, Operation Dark Phone: Murder By Text, dramatizes these intercepted messages to provide a gripping insight into criminal enterprises and their communication methods. Meanwhile, rising cryptocurrency prices have been linked to a sharp increase in violent attacks targeting crypto holders, including kidnappings where perpetrators demand privacy-focused cryptocurrencies like Zcash and Monero to evade transaction tracking. Such attacks often involve multiple perpetrators fulfilling different roles, combining physical violence with cryptocurrency knowledge to facilitate ransom payments. Additionally, the dark web remains a critical hub for various illicit activities, including drug trafficking and human trafficking, with criminals exploiting anonymity tools like Tor and cryptocurrencies to evade law enforcement detection.