Germany Cracks Down on Organized Crime after EncroChat Bust

Reported incidents of Organized Crime rose some 17% in Germany over the course of 2021, according to new statistics released by the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) but the spike in cases doesn’t necessarily point to a spike in crime but a spike in enforcement thanks to the dismantling of an encrypted messaging service criminals used.

More than 7,500 suspects were arrested, a 14% increase over 2020, and 7.5% of them were armed, said the BKA.

This came after experts dismantled EncroChat, the encrypted messaging service that became the chief communication tool in the criminal world, particularly in Europe.

“EncroChat was one of the largest providers of encrypted communications and offered a secure mobile phone instant messaging service, but an international law enforcement team cracked the company’s encryption,” the British National Crime Agency said in a statement about their Operation Venetic, which took on groups using the tool.

“There were 60,000 users worldwide and around 10,000 users in the U.K. – the sole use was for coordinating and planning the distribution of illicit commodities, money laundering and plotting to kill rival criminals,” the agency explained.

In the U.K., cracking EncroChat resulted in the dismantling of entire organized criminal groups, while the program’s effect on German crime is only just becoming clear.

“In the year under review, 187 OC investigations were initiated in which crimes linked to the use of encrypted telecommunications via the now switched off Europe-based communication service EncroChat were detected,” the report said.

According to the report, it was revealed that in 2021, German organized crime caused some $2.2 billion worth of damage. In comparison, 2020’s number was only $813 million.

Fraud, especially related to the coronavirus pandemic, was one of the most common forms of organized crime in Germany during that period, the BKA found.