EncroChat: Uncovering a gangster's plan to shoot a rival
Frankie Sinclair evaded police for five years until his secret phone line was hacked by police.
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Frankie Sinclair evaded police for five years until his secret phone line was hacked by police.
Frankie Sinclair evaded justice for five years until his secret phone line was hacked by police.
For over two months from April 2020, Met officers were able to eavesdrop on messages sent by 1,400 suspected criminals who were unaware that their supposedly secure EncroChat encrypted phones had been compromised by a French hacking operation. It was, according to the six-part BBC podcast, Catching the Kingpins, the biggest organised crime bust in British policing history, leading the Met Police to arrest 950 suspected criminals and secure convictions against 750 of the most dangerous criminals.
The force said the offenders were jailed for a total of 3,722 years behind bars in the investigation, named Operation Eternal, since it began in March 2020.
More than 1,200 organised criminals, including drug “kingpins”, have been jailed after detectives infiltrated a secret phone network used by gangsters.