Analysis of thousands of mobile phone calls conducted through the encrypted provider Encrochat have led to more than 2,250 investigations and around 360 ongoing criminal procedures in Germany, Frankfurt prosecutors said on July 6.

In April last year, Germany’s federal police (BKA), received Encrochat data relating to Germany from Europol, the Europe-wide law enforcement agency. Criminals had made use of the provider in the belief that their calls could not be monitored.

“The evaluation of the data is ongoing,” a spokeswoman for the state prosecutors said, describing the data as incredibly useful. “Normally, communication proceeds very conspiratorially and with code words. For example: I’ll go and pick up granny.”

Investigators then had to guess the significance, but when using encrypted phones, suspects believed they were completely safe and could speak openly about their business, about coping with their competitors and about drug deliveries.

Arrests, confiscations and searches had resulted from more than 520 investigations, the BKA and the centre for combating Internet crime (ZIT) under the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office said.

Police had carried out 750 arrest warrants and seized almost 3.2 tons of cannabis, some 320 kilograms of synthetic drugs, more than 125,500 Ecstasy tablets, almost 400 kilograms of cocaine and 10 kilograms of heroin.

In one case, four suspects were identified who shipped marijuana from Spain to Germany and also dealt in cocaine. The investigation put the street value of the drugs at more than €5mil .

 - dpa