Coppers cracked an expensive messaging app, called "Sky ECC" at the end of last year. It then sorted through thousands of messages major criminals were sending each other over the course of a month.

More than 200 raids involving 1,500 police officers and special forces across Belgium were simultaneously deployed to finger the collar of some rather naughty people.

Sky ECC became popular with drug criminals after its successor Encrochat was cracked in 2020 by French and Dutch investigators, who were able to intercept over 100 million messages sent via the app. That led to over a hundred suspects being arrested in the Netherlands, uncovering a network of laboratories where crystal meth and other drugs were being produced and allowing police to seize 8,000 kilos of cocaine and €20 million.

In a press conference by Belgium's federal public prosector's office on Tuesday afternoon, authorities stated that 17 tons of cocaine and €1.2 million were seized and that 48 suspects were arrested.

Critics of Sky ECC "say more than 90 percent of its customers are criminals", according to the Brussels Times. Days later America's Justice Department indicted the CEO of Sky Global "for allegedly selling their devices to help international drug traffickers avoid law enforcement", reports Vice.

They call it "only the second time the DOJ has filed charges against an encrypted phone company, and signals that the DOJ will continue to prosecute the heads and associates of companies that they say cater deliberately to facilitating criminal acts".

Earlier the Brussels Times had quoted the app's makers statement that they "strongly believe that privacy is a fundamental human right."

The newspaper also reported that Sky ECC calls itself "the world's most secure messaging app" — and "had previously said 'hacking is impossible'" — though investigators have already decrypted half a billion messages.