Unveiling the Dark World of Sky ECC: How Law Enforcement Agencies Busted a Major Assassination Plot and Organized Crime Network

2023-06-04 15:30:07

Hafid Harfouche, 25, thought he had prepared this assassination plan in the greatest secrecy. On February 11, 2021, on Sky ECC encrypted messaging, then deemed inviolable, “LAA” – his pseudonym – asked the sponsor, baptized “LIDL”, for the details of the upcoming operation: “Explain to me all those you need with info I’m going” (…) “OK what age address? » (…) “With a photo please” (…) “Okay perfect you want me to tear it? » (…) “Tkt I understood well I’m not here to leave alive I want money lol”. The young assassin in the making is about to start scouting. Then, on February 24: “Salem, how are you?” Here is his advance today I tested the calibers I have the cars tomorrow I buy outfit. Every Sunday I spot again once or twice puts maximum etc good I burst it. »

What ‘LAA’ does not know is that, since June 2019, Dutch, Belgian and French police have penetrated messaging and are recording all messages exchanged by Sky phone holders – Canadian technology devices on which Sky messaging ECC is installed. Better, since February 15, 2021, they have been able to decipher them and follow them live. During this so-called “live” phase, 1.5 million pieces of information are shared there every day between 164,000 users, including 12,000 in the Netherlands, 6,000 in Belgium and nearly 1,300 in France. Without detour or precaution of language, it is a question of weapons, money, cocaine, past or future executions.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Sky ECC, the app popular with traffickers, a gold mine for organized crime investigations

On the French side, the messages from Harfouche alerted the police who, after several cross-checks, identified the target as Widad F., 41, known mainly from their literature as having been the companion of Mustapha Djillali Bloufa, known as “Ronaldo”, a major drug trafficker murdered in a parking lot in Garges-lès-Gonesse (Val-d’Oise) in March 2020. The blocking of Hafid Harfouche’s telephone in front of his home in Créteil as well as a new message mentioning that the assassination is planned for the following Monday, finally prompting the investigators to alert Widad F. so that she can go to safety.

Major operation

The stakes are high: beyond this sensitive operation, it is a question of not compromising the current European operation to capture Sky data. After eighteen months of interceptions, on March 9, 2021, the Belgian police decided unilaterally, and to the chagrin of their French counterparts, to launch a vast operation around the port of Antwerp on the basis of the numerous information collected. An operation of such magnitude that all Sky users will understand that their encrypted exchange solution is compromised. The arrest of Hafid Harfouche is decided on the same day.

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