Dutch EncroChat phone reseller faces 4 years in prison

The Dutch Public Prosecution Service has demanded a four-year prison sentence against a 28-year-old woman from Den Bosch for preparing and trading EncroChat phones.

The Public Prosecutor stated that the suspect sold EncroChat phones from April 2019 to June 2020. These phones allow criminals to send encrypted messages to other criminals and communicate anonymously.

Trading such phones isn’t illegal. However, according to the Public Prosecution Service, the phones that the woman sold were exclusively used for criminal purposes. On top of that, the seller frequently wiped these phones remotely when one of her clients got arrested, and deleted users’ messages.

The woman was arrested in September 2021 when her name popped up as a reseller in another investigation. She claimed that she didn’t know her customers. The Public Prosecutor, however, doesn’t believe her story. The woman received large amounts of cash, and her clientele consisted of persons involved in drug trafficking.

The Public Prosecution Service argues that the woman was part of a criminal organization that laundered money on a large scale and benefited criminals. According to the Prosecutor's calculations, the suspect generated €630,840 in revenue by selling EncroChat phones.

The woman was a so-called sub-reseller who sold the crypto phones on behalf of another suspect who managed 30 other resellers.

“By selling crypto phones, the defendant contributed to making the detection of serious crimes, such as large-scale drug trafficking, more difficult. She had only one goal in mind: making a quick buck. The Public Prosecution Service takes this very seriously,” the Public Prosecutor says in a statement.

The court will make its ruling on April 15th.

In July 2020, Dutch and French law enforcement authorities managed to crack EncroChat. For months, police officers were able to listen in on criminals. In all, the police collected over 20 million encrypted messages sent by drug traffickers, arms dealers, and other criminals.

In the following weeks, the Dutch police arrested 100 suspects, dismantled 19 drug labs, took dozens of firearms off the streets, and seized almost 10,000kg of drugs and nearly €20 million in cash. In addition, police officers collected names, photos, and messages from suspects.

The Director of the National Criminal Investigation Department called the cracking of EncroChat and the interception of the encrypted messages a “game-changer in crime-fighting.”