In the spring of 2020, it rained manna from the sky.
That is when the Swedish police gained access to the material that the French police managed to come across when they cracked the encryption in Encrochat - a popular chat tool among Europe's criminals.
On its website, the Police Authority now tells about the successes: so far, 125 prison years have been sentenced in the Stockholm Police investigations with evidence from the encrypted mobile service.
In addition, another 60-70 people will have been prosecuted for serious crimes linked to gun violence and gang crime in the capital in the coming six months.
- We now see the result of the offensive work we did in 2020 where about a hundred people in criminal networks were detained for serious and serious crime.
In recent months, we have received a receipt that we are in the right intelligence and that we are working against the right people, says Mats Löfving, regional police chief in Stockholm, in a press release.
"This is only the beginning"
He continues:
- This is just the beginning - in the coming six months, more prosecutions and several major trials will take place that deal with serious crime.
In several cases, it is leading network people who are in custody.
The pending charges include murder, preparation for murder, general destruction, extremely serious drug offenses and kidnapping.
According to Mats Löfving, the state of evidence in the investigations looks good.
- The police have, among other things, been able to take part in encrypted communication between criminals.
Normally, it is difficult to prove who is behind the planning of this type of crime, but Encrochat means that we have greater opportunities to access organizers and principals and not just the executors, he says in a press release.
Read more about how the favorite tool among criminals became a goldmine for the police here:
Police: "Now we know how an orderly murder goes"