Encrypted Phone
Networks

//EncroChat

EncroChat was a Netherlands-based encrypted phone service that operated from approximately 2016 to 2020. The service provided modified Android devices stripped of all standard functionality - no GPS, no camera, no microphone. Communication was possible only through EncroChat's own messaging system, with messages encrypted end-to-end and automatically deleted after a set period. Devices cost around EUR 1,500 with a six-month subscription of EUR 1,500.

At its peak, EncroChat had approximately 60,000 users worldwide, with heavy concentrations in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, the UK, and Spain. An estimated 90% of users were involved in criminal activity. French gendarmerie, working with Dutch police and Europol, managed to infiltrate EncroChat's servers in Roubaix, France, in early 2020. For months, law enforcement silently harvested over 120 million messages before the operation was revealed in June 2020.

The intelligence was devastating for organized crime. Messages revealed real-time drug shipments, the identities of corrupt officials, planned assassinations, and the internal structures of criminal organizations. In the Netherlands alone, the EncroChat data led to hundreds of arrests, the seizure of tonnes of drugs, and the discovery of multiple torture chambers - so-called "containers" converted into soundproofed cells in remote locations.

//Sky ECC

After the fall of EncroChat, many criminals migrated to Sky ECC, a Canadian-based encrypted communications provider. Sky ECC offered similar features: modified devices, end-to-end encryption, and a panic wipe function. The service had approximately 170,000 users globally, with Belgium being its largest European market.

Belgian federal police, in cooperation with Dutch and French authorities, managed to crack Sky ECC's encryption in late 2020. Operation "Argus" ran silently for months, intercepting approximately one billion messages before the network was shut down in March 2021. The Belgian operation yielded even more intelligence than EncroChat, revealing the full extent of cocaine trafficking through the Port of Antwerp.

Sky ECC data exposed how criminal networks had systematically corrupted port workers, police officers, and customs officials. It revealed shipment details, financial flows, and organizational hierarchies that fueled investigations across Europe for years. Major figures in Belgian and Dutch organized crime were identified and arrested based on Sky ECC evidence.

//ANOM - The FBI Trap

Perhaps the most audacious operation was ANOM (also known as AN0M), an encrypted phone service secretly developed and operated by the FBI in cooperation with Australian Federal Police. After the takedown of the Phantom Secure network in 2018, the FBI recruited a former Phantom Secure distributor to promote ANOM as the next secure platform. Over 12,000 devices were distributed in over 100 countries, and every single message was silently forwarded to law enforcement. Operation Trojan Shield, revealed in June 2021, resulted in over 800 arrests worldwide and the seizure of more than 30 tonnes of drugs. The operation demonstrated that criminals' trust in encrypted platforms could itself become a vulnerability.

//The Aftermath

The cracking of EncroChat, Sky ECC, and ANOM fundamentally changed the landscape of organized crime communications. Criminals have become deeply suspicious of any platform, fragmenting across consumer apps like Signal, Telegram, and even handwritten notes. Some organizations have reverted to face-to-face meetings and trusted couriers. Law enforcement, meanwhile, continues to process the massive intelligence hauls - investigations based on EncroChat and Sky ECC data are expected to continue until at least 2027. The legal admissibility of the intercepted data remains contested in courts across Europe, with defense lawyers arguing that the mass surveillance violated privacy rights.