Police Seize 28 Tons Of Cocaine After Breaking Into Encrypted Phone Network⁠.

Belgium police have seized almost 28 tons of cocaine after breaking into an encrypted phone network.⁠

A major drug bust dating back to February led authorities to find 27.64 tons of cocaine at the port of Antwerp. According to CNN, the cocaine has a street value of 1.4 billion euros ($1.65 billion). On top of that, police obtained nearly 11 tons overnight on April 2 and April 3, the BelgianFederalPolice said in a statement on Monday.⁠

What helped authorities was an encrypted messaging service called Sky ECC. The service helped police specialists gain access to the criminals’ encrypted messages.⁠

“During a judicial investigation into a potential service criminal organization suspected of knowingly providing encrypted telephones to the criminal environment, police specialists managed to crack the encrypted messages from Sky ECC,” reads the statement.⁠

“This data provides elements in current files but also opened up new criminal offenses. The international smuggling of cocaine batches plays a prominent role in intercepted reports.”⁠

The investigation is ongoing.