Some of the UK’s most sophisticated criminals have been jailed for a combination of 1013 years.
Operation Foam – which investigates criminals who use encrypted mobile phones – has seen 256 people arrested.
EncroChat devices are often used to orchestrate their criminal business. It is used like a criminal instant messaging service, with messages detailing all sorts of nefarious illegal dealings. Previously, the technology behind these devices made it impossible for police to obtain any data or evidence.
The criminals believed these encrypted devices rendered them untouchable, and over the years, they have sought to facilitate the most heinous crimes.
Police achievements
In almost three years, police have removed criminals from the streets, achieving the following:
- 256 initiatives arrested
- 111 people jailed for a combined total of 1013 years, with a further 111 awaiting trial
- More than £2.9 million in cash seized. A portion of this will be returned to GMP to fund community initiatives
- 330kg of class A and B drugs, and 2.6 million class C tablets seized
- 42 firearms and 1303 rounds of ammunition removed from the streets of Greater Manchester.
Operation Foam was launched in March 2020 when police forces across the UK were handed hundreds of thousands of messages from a once encrypted messaging platform by the National Crime Agency, who, as part of Operation Venetic, had infiltrated the largest providers of secure, encrypted communications.
Detective superintendent Joe Harrop, head of Serious Organised Crime at GMP, said: “This breakthrough was monumental and gave us insight into the criminal underworld in a way we’d not had access before.
“Operation Foam is our largest ever operation into organised crime in Manchester, and work continues behind the scenes. We have specialist teams working tirelessly, trawling through messages to attribute handles and devices to criminals across the UK. But our work hasn’t stopped, and we continue to dismantle the countries most sophisticated criminal networks, we are still making regular arrests, with more on the horizon.
“We are unceasing in our efforts to disrupt these criminal networks, and this is just one of hundreds of tactics used by teams across the force to tackle organised crime in our communities.”
