The application of two thousand euros that was used by criminals

The operation of the Judicial Police (PJ) that led to the arrest and constitution of Nininho Vaz Maia and four others on suspicions of drug trafficking began to draw more than four years ago, 2000 km from Lisbon.

The first step was taken in Belgium when, following several arrests, the European authorities realized that international criminal networks were using the application of encrypted Sky ECC communications to speak and exchange safe messages. It was not an easy task. At the time, more than 170,000 people used the application, which had their own infrastructure and was operated from the United States and Canada. According to Europol, more than three million messages were exchanged a day.

The second step was taken when the Belgian and Dutch police managed to unleash the communications system. They then monitored it to the operation of March 9, 2021 during which they were able to block the use of the application. Millions of audio messages and records were collected that gradually began to be delivered to the authorities of various European countries. « Everything that had to do with Portugal or Portuguese individuals was sent to the Judicial Police through Eurojust, » he says Sunrise a judicial source.

The messages collected from Sky ECC joined the millions of communications that, a year earlier, had been seized in a similar application, Encroceat. It was the messages of the latter that contributed decisively to the arrest and condemnation of Ruben Oliveira, known as « Xuxa » that the PJ classified from one of the drug trafficking barons in Portugal.

Installing the system on the mobile phone was not cheap. «It costs more than two thousand euros. It was used by criminals but also by journalists, businessmen and politicians who wanted to protect communications, ”explains a lawyer who participated in the process of Ruben Oliveira.

Each application user had an assigned code – not a name, which makes the authorities difficult. «These are mass conversations, gross. Most are related to drug trafficking. Researchers are checking them and seeing if they can relate to processes that are underway or even archived. In this case, they are reopened, ”explains a magistrate who asked for anonymity. « A voice comparison is even made, the phones of mobile phones are analyzed to try to get a location and also the content of what is said, to realize if it is possible to identify someone, » adds another judicial source. After an initial phase in which PJ only had access to communications, they were also shared with the Central Department of Research and Criminal Action.

It was in this context that, last Tuesday, the PJ’s National Fighting Trafficking Trafficking unit carried out an operation in which two people were detained and 33 home searches were held, one of which to singer Nininho Vaz Maia on suspicions of trafficking and laundering of capital. Contacted by sunrise, the singer’s lawyer, Carlos Melo Alves, ensures that the client is innocent. «No proof was presented. In the searches they say it is indicted, but do not point out facts. They say it took drugs to Spain but how? When? The search warrant does not say. And he was not even present to a judge, ”he says.

According to the PJ and the Public Prosecution Service (MP), the network leader will be the construction entrepreneur Mauro Wilson, who was gone as partly uncertain, something his lawyer belies. «On search day I sent a request to ask him to be heard. Was in my office. Today, Thursday, at 15h I have not had an answer yet. I assume that they have no interest in listening to it, ”he says to the sunrise Paulo Mendes Santos. «The PJ went to his sister’s office, who is a lawyer and Fifth of the Father. They were in Mauro homes and did not apprehend a euro or the Lamborghini that was in the garage, ”he continues.

Asked about the relationship with Nininho Vaz Maia, the lawyer says they are childhood friends. « They lived in the same neighborhood up to 10 years but do not have a recent relationship, » he says. «The order they presented to some of the defendants says that Mauro is a trafficker, without more. It’s a lie. He is a businessman. By 2021 there was a company that already earned over one million euros, ”he adds. About the Sky ECC application, it is pereny: «Do not use these communications. His phone does not have these applications.

However, a judicial source also explains that when the applications were closed, the phones where they were installed « disappeared ». It remains to be seen if it is possible to associate the names of code with people.

Another aspect has to do with the legality of this use. Several lawyers have contested this evidence, saying that it is prohibited because it was not collected in accordance with Portuguese law. However, the PJ and MP rely on its use, arguing that the evidence was evaluated by a judge in the country of origin, were sent to a European investigation decision and were then validated by a criminal instruction judge.