Albanian Drug Smugglers Busted After Cops Decrypt Comms

European police claim to have disrupted a major Albanian drug smuggling gang after they were able to decrypt and analyze private communications between the group and corrupt officials.

Europol revealed this week that Albanian and Italian authorities have arrested 21 people, including a former judge, a lawyer, a police officer and two investigative journalists, as part of a major corruption investigation.

The individuals are suspected of helping to enable and shield the violent organized crime gang as it imported large quantities of cocaine from South America to Europe and laundered the proceeds in Albania.

The breakthrough was made thanks to police access to SKY ECC, an encrypted chat platform once favored by the criminal underworld.

Its developer, Canadian firm Sky Global, is said to have made hundreds of millions of dollars over the past decade from the sophisticated end-to-end encryption software – which works with various handsets including iPhones.

Read more on SKY ECC: Police Crack Comms to Bust Money Laundering Group

However, in March 2021, Europol revealed that it had been able to access hundreds of millions of chats sent by the estimated 70,000 global users of Sky ECC, after police “wiretapped” Sky Global’s servers.

At the time, it said the operation had enabled police to disrupt over 100 planned criminal operations in EU member states and beyond.

It’s unclear whether this latest law enforcement operation is the result of historic messages sent by the Albanian criminal network, or if it was still using SKY ECC even after the revelations.

“In coordination with the Belgian, Dutch and French authorities, Europol delivered intelligence packages from SKY ECC communications to Albanian authorities and conducted in-depth analysis to uncover links to other EU investigations,” Europol revealed.

Disinformation and Leaks

The former judge and lawyer are accused of “manipulating judicial proceedings” in favor of the gang, while the police officer is suspected of “leaking sensitive operational information.” The journalists are said to have spread disinformation to undermine investigations and influence public opinion.

The organized crime gang, which originates in the Albanian city of Elbasan, is said to have orchestrated “sniper attacks and murders” against rivals around the world.

As well as the arrests, the monitoring of SKY ECC chats helped police intercept two shipments of cocaine, of 450kg and 900kg, and identify and seize numerous properties and assets used to launder criminal proceeds, according to Europol.