Two brothers that were the leaders of a drug trafficking gang have both been given the maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment by the Court of Appeal in Antwerp. They were also fined 200,000 euro each. Both had been acquitted at their initial trial before the Antwerp Criminal Court last year. Then the court said that there was not enough evidence to convict them. This is the first time that the Court of Appeal has heard a case brought using evidence gathered during the Sky ECC investigation.
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Court of Appeal gives maximum sentences to the leaders of an Antwerp drug gang
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Sky ECC is an encrypted messaging app that prior to it being hacked by the police and judicial authorities was the communication method of choice for drug traffickers and other criminals.
At the start of last year a first Sky ECC case was brought before Antwerp Criminal Court. Four suspects were on trial in a case based on evidence gathered from hacked Sky ECC cell phones. One of these was a member of staff at the Antwerp Hospital Network (ZNA). After having been asked to do so by a friend, she looked up the address of a dock worker in the National Register. Hospital employees have access to the National Register but are strictly bound to only access it in order to gain information that is relevant to and necessary for their work.
Both the hospital worker and her friend were tried along with two brothers that were part of a gang that used dock workers to get cocaine out of shipping containers that were on the quayside at Antwerp Docks.
At last year's trial the woman was given 90 hours community service. Her friend was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment. However, the two brothers were acquitted. The court said that there was no evidence that they were behind the Sky ECC accounts called "Python" and "Quick" that were used by the gang. The information on which account belonged to whom was in the wider Sky ECC-dossier but had not been added to the evidence in this case.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office appealed against the aquitals and presented the Court of Appeal with evidence that the two brothers were behind the Python and Quick accounts. The appeal was successful and both brothers were sentenced to 10 years and fined 200,000 euro.