Police Decode EncroChat: The Whatsapp For Organized Crime
Decoded data from messaging services have given the authorities in Germany a new weapon in the fight against gang crime, as shown in the latest raid in Berlin. Criminal families are feeling increasingly uneasy.
BERLIN They arrived in the early morning. Some 500 police officers from Berlin and Brandenburg, officers from the state criminal investigation department, the riot squad and the counter-terrorism and special operations unit GSG 9. They stormed houses, apartments and a convenience store in Berlin, as well as two locations in Brandenburg. As they later announced without any fanfare, 30 search warrants were executed at 22 locations. Two men were arrested, members of the Remmo clan, an Arab gang made up of one extended family.
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Foto: Jason Reed / REUTERS
It was abundantly clear on that February day in the magnificent ballroom of the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich just where the public’s sympathies lay. The German chancellor’s speech at the Munich Security Conference was followed by long applause from the assembled foreign policy experts from around the world. Many stood up and gave Angela Merkel a standing ovation. When U.S. Vice President Joe Biden delivered his speech a short time later, he received the political equivalent of a golf clap.
That was in 2015, the year in which the Ukraine crisis was coming to a head, and a dispute had broken out on stage between Merkel and Biden over arms supplies to the Ukrainian army. Biden was in favor, but Merkel, fearing an escalation of the conflict, was opposed and was later able to convince U.S. President Barack Obama.