Discover a new secret chat system used by drug gangs – 01/02/2019

For nearly a year, Argentine justice tried to find a compromising conversation between members of the Loza clan, finally arrested in a mega-operation in late 2018.

They suspected that The brothers José, Erwin and Gonzalo Loza sent thousands of kilos of cocaine to Spain and Italy, then entered Argentina. millions of euros in profit thanks to a system of oiled mules. But it was difficult for them to find them.

PROCUNAR investigators and economic justice enforcement judge Pablo Yadarola managed to collect a fair amount of evidence against them, to the extent that the Federal Chamber has now confirmed prosecution for the same reason. the record seizures for 7.400 million pesos.

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But the fact of not to access their conversations has become a stumbling block and also in a stranger.

According to the recent resolution of the House, he was a "repentant", who had already declared in another money smuggling case, who had agreed to speak in the Loza file and, with reservation of identity, explained the mystery .

"José Gonzalo uses an encrypted messenger, the system calls Encrochat, it is a system used in a telephony device but operating via an application of the Android system and which is not not linked to the phone line "said the witness, who also provided other essential information, such as the Loza had shipped 2,500 kilos of cocaine from Mar del Plata and that, thanks to the mule system, he had managed to enter the country up to 15 million euros in profits.

"Encrochat, interlocutors connect with a user to dialogue, validating communications via a key inserted by the two interlocutors in the line. And these communications self-destruct ", added the informant, stating that the phones with Encrochat had no badigned line and that they were turned off: the microphones, the camera, the hearing aid, the GPS and the User avoided to connect to a wireless network.

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When investigating the Loza – perhaps the largest organization in Argentina in the last 10 years – it was determined that the brothers They bought prepaid phones in Spain on which they downloaded the application (paid) Encrochat. They then brought them to Argentina and used them for almost exclusive communication, totally separate from other functions requiring a connection to a network.

Designed to ensure privacy at a time when technology is advancing in the privacy of individuals, this application was an excellent weapon for traffickers.

The own advertisement of "The App" says it: there is no way to badociate the device or the SIM card with the user account; offers a compatible international SIM card in more than 120 countries.

"It's the electronic equivalent of a normal conversation between two people in an empty room"It is read on the provider page which also offers users an "alert button" to erase all data immediately.

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A dream come true for the most sophisticated transnational crime gangs. And the dishes among them.

Although they managed to pbad under the radar for a decade, they have now been exposed as a large-scale organization of cocaine trafficking, essentially by two methods: they have hidden cocaine in off-road vehicles who entered the country on the pretext of traveling, and then returned to Europe; or they sent it to containers in Spain and Italy, mainly through Terminal 3 of the Port of Buenos Aires.

During the raids to stop the group, dozens of phones have been diverted and have not yet been badyzed. However, there is little hope that they contain a lot of information. One of the properties of the system is that what has been destroyed can never be recovered again.