Justice has demanded high prison sentences against two suspects of crystal meth production. The police discovered them after the dismantling of the crypto communications service Exclu.
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On the track
The Public Prosecution Service is demanding 4.5 and 6 years in prison against two suspects for the production of methamphetamine, also known as crystal meth. The police discovered them after crypto communications service Exclu was dismantled. She announced this in a message on Wednesday.
Access
Cryptocommunication services are widely used by criminals to share encrypted messages with each other. The police and the Public Prosecution Service regularly try to gain access to this encrypted data. On Friday, February 3, 2023, the Public Prosecution Service announced that this had been successful again, this time with the Exclu messaging service.
At Exclu, the police had been reading the message traffic for five months, which the criminals thought was secret. This is how the two suspects (43 years old and 34 years old from The Hague) came into the picture.
Chocolate milk
The two sent messages about raw materials and materials needed for the production of synthetic drugs. Finally, product came out. ‘Cook will be ready on Monday with chocolate milk’.
According to the Public Prosecution Service, it is evident that it was not really chocolate milk. Messages show that they can ‘really make a lot of money’ with the product that is cooked. And at one point, during a search of a home, more than 3 kilos of methamphetamine was actually found. The resident was previously sentenced to 14 months in prison.
At a distance
“Thanks to the cracking of chat services such as EncroChat, SkyECC and Exclu, there is now insight into the men behind the street dealers, the extractors, the executors in the labs,” the public prosecutor said at the hearing on Wednesday. ‘Men who safely conducted business remotely with their PGP phones and lined their pockets, while letting others do the dirty and dangerous work.’
The Public Prosecution Service sees that it often concerns men, with families, jobs and a good position in society. Often without a criminal record, because they did their ‘business’ under the radar of the police and the judiciary. “It is only fair that these suspects receive the punishment they deserve for their large-scale and often undermining criminal activities.”
