Europe after shutting down an encrypted phone network used by organised crime groups to plot murders and drug deals.

THE HAGUE: Police said on Thursday they had arrested more than 800 people across Europe after shutting down an encrypted phone network used by organised crime groups to plot murders and drug deals.

French and Dutch police said they hacked into the EncroChat network so they could read millions of messages “over the shoulders” of suspects as they communicated with custom-made devices.

Britain said it had arrested 746 people as a result of the operation in what it called a “massive breakthrough” against organised crime, while there were also arrests in countries including Norway, Spain, and Sweden.

EncroChat sent a message to its estimated 60,000 users in June warning them to throw away their 1,000-euro devices as its servers had been “seized illegally by government entities”. It has now been shut down.The hack allowed police “an unprecedented look into the heart” of organised crime groups, Wil van Gemert, Deputy Executive Director of the EU police agency Europol, told a press conference in The Hague.

Police then foiled crimes including “violent attacks, corruption, attempted murders and large-scale drug transports,” Europol and the EU judicial agency Eurojust added in a joint statement.

“Certain messages indicated plans to commit imminent violent crimes and triggered immediate action.”

‘So worrying’

Some of the encrypted messages “were so worrying that it went far beyond our imagination,” said Jannine van den Berg, Chief Constable of the Dutch police’s central unit.

“It was as if though we were sitting at the table where criminals were chatting,” she told the press conference.