Hundreds arrested as police crack phone messaging service used by organised criminals

“We have been able to hit the most senior levels of organised crime where it hurts most  – getting people arrested, seizing their cash, stopping their distribution networks in a way that I have literally never seen before.”

The UK’s most senior police officer Dame Cressida Dick was hailing a major success today – after a European investigation team cracked the encryption of a mobile phone messaging service used by tens of thousands of organised criminals.