Gardai target high-level Irish mobs after combing five years of EncroChat data
Left, Robert Noctor allegedly supplied criminals with encrypted phones; Kinahan cartel mobsters Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh and Liam Byrne were jailed after their plans on EncroChat were intercepted
Gardaí are pursuing a number of investigations against 'high-level targets in Ireland' as part of the 2020 EncroChat takedown by French law enforcement, it has emerged.
The revelation was made by Detective Chief Superintendent Séamus Boland, who is the head of the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB), in an interview with the Sunday World.
It is understood that many Irish criminals used the EncroChat encrypted platform, which was hacked by French police who worked with their British and Dutch counterparts for over two months.
By compromising the network, police could watch all messages, images, and videos that were sent over the system – all unknown to the criminals between early April 2020 and June 13 of that year.
All this data was saved and has resulted in thousands of organised crime prosecutions worldwide to date, with the 'hope' that prosecutions can now happen here in Ireland.
An EncroChat phone looked like any other phone, but there was a second display that could be accessed by a few button clicks that brought the user into the EncroChat system.
Before the hack, police had no way of accessing the information on the phones
More than 32,000 EncroChat phones had accepted the 'capture tool' or 'booby trap' sent out through the computer servers that French police had taken over.
Until the French authorities successfully hacked the system, police had no way of accessing the information on the phones.
While gardaí were not included in the initial and highly significant EncroChat investigation, Det Chief Supt Boland said gardaí have now been 'officially and legally' given the relevant data from the hack on Irish criminals that disrupted organised crime across the globe.
Left, Robert Noctor allegedly supplied criminals with encrypted phones; Kinahan cartel mobsters Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh and Liam Byrne were jailed after their plans on EncroChat were intercepted
News in 90 Seconds - August 16th
'From an investigators' perspective here in the DOCB, we are pursuing a number of investigations at the moment where we would hope to use data that was recovered from the EncroChat takedown in a criminal prosecution,' he said.
Gardaí have previously been reluctant to discuss their plans in relation to the EncroChat takedown, as opposed to their involvement in infiltrating the separate Ghost encrypted platform last September, in which the west Dublin 'Family' gang were one of the main targets.
Detective Chief Superintendent Seamus Boland said the EncroChat data is being examined. Photo: Collins
Last March, 12 arrests were made here, including leaders in 'The Family' gang, and Spain as part of that investigation.
While Det Chief Supt Boland said more arrests are expected as part of the Ghost probe, a huge amount of data from EncroChat is now being analysed over five years after the platform was first compromised by police and then disbanded. 'We are pursuing a number of those investigations at the moment – we as investigators were not involved in it (EncroChat),' he said.
'We are gathering the necessary evidential requirements in an effort to use the data because I think that would be extremely important. But the investigators in DOCB were not involved in that investigation when it was live and ongoing.
'We are looking at that data, we are considering it and gathering it in the legal capacity so that we hopefully use it in criminal prosecutions in Ireland. We would hope to have some very significant successes.'
However, Det Chief Supt Boland also said it 'will not be easy' and 'quite complex' because of different legal systems within European countries, but expressed confidence in DOCB investigators who are compiling the investigation files in relation to EncroChat and Ireland.
Senior Kinahan cartel gangsters Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh and Liam Byrne were given jail sentences in England last year for a bizarre firearms plot that English police became aware of after the criminals discussed plans on EncroChat.
Officers found more than €93,000 in a Brown Thomas bag in the boot of his Toyota Yaris
And gardaí have identified a Dublin barman who allegedly became a key player in supplying gangsters with encrypted phones in Ireland and France.
Robert Noctor, with an address in Clontarf, fled Ireland after being caught with a stash of cash and EncroChat devices used by organised crime gangs across Europe, according to recent evidence put before the High Court in a Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) case.
Noctor hasn't returned to Ireland since he was stopped by gardaí in Artane in January 2020. Officers found more than €93,000 in a Brown Thomas bag in the boot of his Toyota Yaris, as well as three BQ Aquarius mobile phones that CAB said were EncroChat devices.
He told gardaí that he sold the EncroChat phones for €1,000 each and top-ups every six months for €1,500 before the devices and cash were seized from him – three months before the system was compromised by French police.
It then emerged that Noctor had allegedly been selling the handsets in France, according to court documents there.
The cash and the three Encrochat-enabled phones were deemed the proceeds of crime.
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