A court in Brussels has sentenced key defendants in the Sky ECC dossier to prison terms of up to 17 years. Other defendants, including a former police officer, will have to serve prison terms ranging from 15 months to 15 years. Nine defendants were acquitted. The perpetrators were all members of a number of drug gangs that together formed 1 large criminal network operating as far afield as South America and Morocco.
In all, more than 100 defendants were convicted. Perpetrators, the prosecution labelled as the ringleaders, in particular, received heavy sentences: the lowest term for a ringleader is 11 years. The heaviest sentence is 17 years. Other defendants have to serve prison sentences between 15 months and 15 years.
These include an ex-police officer, who was sentenced to five years in prison, part of which is a suspended sentence. The man had provided the gangsters with sensitive information from police databases.
9 defendants were acquitted. 1 of them was mistaken for another offender because they have the same name bar 1 letter.
For years, drug criminals from around the world were able to communicate covertly via Sky ECC, an encrypted phone service that, according to the developer, was ‘uncrackable’. As a result, they managed to smuggle tonnes of drugs, mainly cocaine and cannabis, into Belgium from South America and Morocco.
On 9 March 2021 the fun ended. The police announced that they had managed to hack into the Sky ECC system and for two years had been able to read along with the criminals. Later that year, on 21 October, a massive search operation followed with raids at 114 different locations across Belgium.
The Sky ECC trial is the culmination of this massive investigation. With as many as 129 defendants, it is Belgium’s largest ever drug trial.
