Operation Dark Phone: Murder by Text

The inside story of the biggest ever joint law enforcement operation against a global network of organised crime groups who believed their encrypted phones were safe. For 74 frantic days the authorities could read all the messages and sought to save lives and bring down the gangs, before the criminals realised that their data was being captured.

How one of the users in the encrypted chat was identified as he leader of one of the most dangerous organised crime groups in north-west England, now running his criminal enterprises from outside the UK. He had no idea that his messages had been intercepted and was planning coordinated shootings against the families of two of his enemies.

As the National Crime Agency team mobilise to find the mole within their team, word gets out that there has been a fatal development in the investigation in the Netherlands. A leading crime journalist, Wouter Laumans, is quickly on the case. The murder victim is a very close friend of the crime boss who has built the torture chamber. The authorities fear a terrifying escalation when they uncover a plot to kidnap his enemy's family in revenge. It becomes increasingly clear that the authorities will soon have to reveal their hands if more deaths are to be avoided.

Sixty days since the authorities first broke into the criminals' messages, it's approaching the beginning of the end of the EncroChat hack, as the owners become suspicious that they've been compromised. But as each batch of messages that have been given to the UK authorities are analysed, more and more criminality is exposed. Analysts reveal that it's the first time that they've ever come across exportation of drugs from the UK, as they discover half a tonne of ecstasy is bound for Australia.