More than 6,500 people have been arrested since the massive EncroChat phone hack three years ago, Europol has revealed.
The number of arrests has in turn led to 7,134 years of imprisonment for those convicted to date as a result.
The highly encrypted network, which was used by members of organised crime gangs, was smashed by cops in the Netherlands and France when it was taken down in 2020.
READ NEXT: Underworld text messages sent by Irish trucker who smuggled drugs for Kinahan cartel
It is understood before the hack, more than 60,000 people used EncroChat phones.
Evidence gathered from the hack has seen senior members of the Kinahan cartel being nabbed - including trucker Thomas Maher.
The Offaly man has been behind bars since 2020 serving a 14-year jail term for smuggling Kinahan cartel drugs into Ireland.
British cops found messages that show Maher organised the collection and delivery of at least 21 kilos of cocaine – worth as much as €4.5 million - from locations in the Netherlands.
Associates reported back to Maher as the drugs were picked up, transported, and arrived at their final destination in Ireland.
More recently, Liam Byrne and Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh's son Jack were arrested by Spanish cops.
A warrant was issued for their arrest after EncroChat messages appeared to show they were involved in the supply and acquisition of firearms.
At a press conference in Lille yesterday, Dutch and French police revealed that since the hack they have seized or frozen nearly €900 million in criminal funds.
It has also led to the seizure of 103.5 tonnes of cocaine, 163.4 tonnes of cannabis, and 3.3 tonnes of heroin.
While cops have also seized 971 vehicles, 923 weapons along with 21, 750 rounds of ammunition and 68 explosives
Officers from around the world also seized 83 boats and 40 planes as a result of the hack.
The French Gendarmerie Nationale restarted their probe into alleged criminal conduct into the company in 2017 - after they regularly found the phones during operations against organised crime gangs.
They learned that the company behind the tool was operating via servers in France.
Eventually, they placed a technical device to go beyond the encryption technique and obtain access to users’ correspondence.
Investigators managed to intercept, share and analyse more than 115 million criminal conversations.
The EncroChat phones promised anonymity and were sold as not being traceable.
Some of the functions included automatic deletion and PIN codes which would wipe all the data.
The handsets sold for around €1,000 and the company offered subscriptions with worldwide coverage, at a cost of €1,500 for a six-month period, with 24/7 support.
In a statement, Europol said: “The dismantling of EncroChat in 2020 sent shockwaves across OCGs in Europe and beyond.
"It helped to prevent violent attacks, attempted murders, corruption, and large-scale drug transports, as well as obtain large-scale information on organised crime.
“OCGs worldwide illegally used the encryption tool EncroChat for criminal purposes.
"Since the dismantling, investigators managed to intercept, share and analyse over 115 million criminal conversations, by an estimated number of over 60 000 users.”
