Police Scotland seize £25 million of drugs along with guns and grenades in Europe-wide sting operation - thanks to hacking of military-grade encrypted Encrochat

Police across Scotland have seized £25 million worth of drugs and a number of guns and explosives in a major Europe-wide operation which has dismantled several organised crime gangs.

Cocaine, heroin, cannabis and thousands of Etizolam tablets - also known as fake valium - have been recovered along with £7 million of laundered cash and a number of guns, ammunition, grenades and industrial pill presses - and officers have arrested 59 people.

One raid in Kent led to the seizure of 28 million fake valium tablets (worth £14 million) destined for Scotland, while operations also led to "millions of pounds worth" of drugs being recovered on the M74 - the main route into Scotland from south of the border.

Among the drugs hauls in May were 65kg of cocaine from a HGV lorry at Hamilton Services which led to a 53-year-old man being charged, and the recovery of 59kg of cocaine and £750,000 of cash after a car and van were stopped near Ecclefechan with three men - aged 38, 41 and 56 - being charged.

Some of the drugs and cash recovered by Police Scotland.

Heroin with a value of £360,000 was also recovered after a vehicle was stopped on the M74 northbound on June 6th - and a 30-year-old man was arrested.

During Covid-19, the M74 has had less traffic on it and has an array of hi-tech cameras at several points for instant vehicle recognition. These were installed after an IRA attack in London using a car transporter brought via the Northern Ireland ferry on the M74 and on to England.

Other major finds included £2 million of cash following house searches in Glasgow and premises in the Clydebank area which led to two men - aged 50 and 54 - being charged.

Six men and two women were also arrested after property searches in Glasgow and Renfrewshire on May 12th which recovered 11.kg of drugs and 36,000 tablets with an estimated street value of £500,000, as well as £131,000 in cash.

Encrochat

The operation came after law enforcement hacked a military-grade encrypted communication system - using mobile phone messaging - used by organised criminals to trade drugs and guns following a massive international sting launched in April.

After four years of work by international teams, French investigators managed to access Encrochat, an encrypted platform used by 60,000 people worldwide, including around 10,000 in the UK, for what law enforcement agencies claim were purely criminal purposes.

The company, which charged £1,500 for a device on a six-month contract, sent out a warning to users in early June to say that its servers had been hacked by a government entity.

This left investigators with a race against time to make the most of the wealth of information available on the platform, targeting who they could before they could cover their tracks.

The activity in Scotland was part of Operation Venetic - the biggest ever UK operation into serious and organised crime involving Police Scotland, the National Crime Agency (NCA) and police forces across the country.

International investigators are also going after the team who ran Encrochat, who they said led "luxury lifestyles", although the technology itself is not illegal

National Crime Agency (NCA) director of investigations Nikki Holland said the breach was like "having an inside person in every top organised crime group in the country".She said: "This is the biggest and the most significant law enforcement operation of its kind in the UK and it is previously unmatched in terms of its scale.

"We have dismantled well-established organised crime groups and have already secured evidence to prosecute a significant number of known criminals that have previously remained beyond our reach."

So far, officers in the UK have arrested 746 suspects and seized more than £54 million in cash, as well as 55 sports cars and 73 luxury watches.

In Scotland, more than 50 warrants have been executed by hundreds of officers at addresses throughout the country.

Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable Angela McLaren said: “Police Scotland is absolutely committed to disrupting those involved in serious and organised crime in Scotland.

“These intelligence-led proactive operations, which have been undertaken in partnership with the NCA, UK police forces and Border Force, have resulted in some of the largest seizures made by the service.

“Keeping people safe and continuing to make the country a hostile environment for those who seek to bring misery to our communities through their organised criminality remains a priority for Police Scotland.

“This underlines our commitment to the country’s Serious and Organised Crime Strategy through the SOC Taskforce and our collective determination to target those involved and strike at the very centre of their illicit operations. Criminals do not recognise borders and we have been working closely with our UK and European law enforcement partners throughout this intense period of activity."

Drug hauls Scotland

Police Scotland have made a number of "significant" seizures as part of the UK-wide operation. Here are some of them;

- Two men - aged 20 and 34 - were charged in connection with the seizure of 40kg of cocaine after a van was stopped on the M74 near Lesmahagow on April 20th.

- A 35-year-old man was arrested after police recovered about £200,000 worth of drugs, thought to be cannabis, on the A74 near to Moffat.

- Following a joint intelligence-led operation, officers from the Organises Crime Partnership searched a vehicle in the Whitburn area of West Lothian and premises in Burton on Trent and Leicester and recovered 30kg of cocaine and £10,000 in cash. Two men were arrested and charged.

- Police also recovered a gun, ammunition, two grenades and more than £12,000 of cash after searching properties in the Johnstone, East Kilbride and Glasgow areas on June 10th. Three men - aged 34, 42 and 69 - were arrested.

- In another incident, officers stopped a van on the M74 in Dumfries and Galloway and seized heroin with a street value in excess of £380,000 and charged a 30-year-old man.

- In another incident in North Lanarkshire, four men - aged 35, 42, 44, 45 - and a 48-year-old woman were also arrested on June 3rd after police found about £1 million in cash and £80,000 worth of herbal cannabis.

- Drugs believed to be crack cocaine, cannabis and diazepam with an estimated street value of £1,300 were seized in Edinburgh on June 2nd at three addresses - Argyle Park Terrace, Pleasance and The North Walk - and a four figure sum of cash was also seized. Three men - aged 22, 66 and 60 - were charged.

- In April, a car was stopped on the A8 in Edinburgh and a quantity of heroin was recovered with an estimated street value of £50,000. A 27-year-old man was charged.

- Two guns and ammunition were also seized at a house in Larkhall along with 1.4kg if heroin and Etizolam with an estimated street value of £116,000.

- A cannabis cultivation of about 350 plants was also seized in a property in Glasgow Road, Clydebank on May 9th and two men - aged 28 and 31 - were charged in connection with the seizure worth in the region of £825,000.

- Officers also stopped a car in Glasgow's Fulton Street and recovered 175kg of adulterant - a substance mixed with drugs - and subsequent searches recovered a quantity of controlled drugs and about £340,000 in cash. Two men, aged 28 and 37, were charged.

- Police also recovered £1.2 million in cash during searches at houses in Auchinleck Road and Strachur Crescent, Glasgow in April and arrested two men and two women in their 30s.

Last year, the number of drug-related deaths in Scotland soared to 1,187 – the highest since records began in 1996.