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Cops Find Secret Sound-Proofed Torture Container Used by SICKOS Worldwide
Cops Uncover Secret Torture Shipping Container Sound-Proofed to Stifle Screams
UK & Dutch authorities investigating the EncroChat found the chambers equipped with dentists' chairs, handcuffs attached to the ceilings and floors, and video feeds so the cells could be watched remotely
Daily Mail UK, 9 JUL 2020
The chilling chamber was sound-proofed and contained a dentist's chair (Image: Netherlands Police)
A 'torture chamber' has been uncovered by Dutch detectives who say it is linked to a criminal underworld encrypted chat network. Authorities tipped off by Encrochat messages raided a Netherlands warehouse and found a chilling makeshift prison equipped with a dentist chair.
Detectives opened the containers to find they had been converted into cells sound-proofed to stifle prisoners' screams, authorities said.
They also found handcuffs attached to the ceilings and floors, which could be watched remotely via a video feed.
Six of the containers had been converted into makeshift prison cells.
"Suspects called the seventh container the 'treatment room',
which was very clearly meant for and prepared to torture
people," the police statement said.
When police searched the they found bags containing hedge cutters, scalpels and pliers "likely intended to torture victims or at least put them under pressure", along with the identities of potential victims.
Authorities uncovered a 'treatment' room complete with video streaming technology (Image: Netherlands Police)
The discovery was made in a warehouse on June 22 in the town of Wouwse Plantage, near the Netherlands' southern border with Belgium.
The chilling discovery was made after international investigators broke into the EncroChat network, in a bust that has sent shockwaves through the British and European organised crime world.
Six people were detained on suspicion of kidnapping and
hostage taking following the discovery at the warehouse, the Dutch national police said in a statement.
The chambers contained handcuffs fixed to the floors and ceilings (Image: Netherlands Police)
The site was found during a investigation into a 40-year-old man from The Hague suspected of drug trafficking and
plotting an execution.
Police were able to read texts sent on the encrypted
messaging app EncroChat, enabling them to follow real time
conversations between the criminals, who swapped pictures of the dental chair, the police statement said.
Officers also confiscated 24 kilograms of the drug MDMA,
police clothing, stolen vehicles and weapons, the statement added.
Authorities raid the warehouse close to Netherlands' border with Belgium (Image: Netherlands Police)
The far-reaching EncroChat investigation has led to masses of arrests throughout the UK and Europe.
The service - thought to charge users £1,500 for six-month contracts - had claimed its networks were impenetrable to investigators.
But international police forces broke into the networks and shared the data through Europol, setting into motion one of the biggest infiltrations into organised crime in recent history.
The shipping containers had been converted into a 'torture chamber' (Image: Netherlands Police)
The UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) operation started in 2016 but it was only two months ago that French and Dutch law enforcement officers cracked into the furtive phone system.
Investigators were able to access the chats, secretly monitoring criminals' moves unbeknownst to them, then busting alleged murder plots and suspected drug networks.
The UK's arm of the probe, dubbed Operation Venetic, has seen 746 arrests so far over the past month, with £54 million in criminal cash seized along with 77 firearms and more than two tonnes of drugs.
Dutch Police arrested six men during their investigation (Image: Netherlands Police)
Forces say hundreds of people set to be targeted with violence have been made safe because of the breakthrough.
The NCA estimated EncroChat had around 60,000 users worldwide and around 10,000 users in the UK.
The agency said last week the sole use was for coordinating and planning the distribution of illicit commodities, money laundering and plotting to kill rival criminals.
The warehouse contained a grisly secret (Image: Netherlands Police)
On 14 June, EncroChat realised the platform had been penetrated and sent a message to its users urging them to throw away their handsets.
According to the NCA, one message from a UK user of the network wrote: “The police are having a field day.”
When the agency announced the breakthrough last week, they said police up and down the country had seized weapons including an AK47 assault rifle, sub machine guns, and hand grenades.
Detectives also seized luxury cars and watches during the raids.
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