Secret Prisoner: How French Spies Are Outmaneuvering British Criminals

London: So, there’s this big mess going on in British prisons right now. The Telegraph is sharing stories from an inmate in a Category B jail, which is pretty serious stuff. This place is overcrowded and understaffed, and things like self-harm and drug use are rampant.

The inmate, who used to be a professional on the outside, is waiting for trial on some non-violent charges he insists he didn’t commit. To keep him safe, they’re keeping his name under wraps, along with others involved.

Life in prison gives you a lot of time to think about the charges against you. Many prisoners are talking about how the police gather evidence and how it’s used in court. The ones who are really vocal are the EncroChat defendants.

EncroChat was this encrypted app that criminals loved. They paid a pretty penny to use it, but it was only for sending texts and photos. You couldn’t even use it on a regular smartphone.

Around five years ago, French intelligence hacked into EncroChat. It sounds like a win for law enforcement, right? They intercepted gangsters’ messages, seized tons of drugs, and locked up some big players.

But here’s the kicker: now, people are getting convicted based on EncroChat evidence without any real physical proof—no drugs, no weapons, nothing. It’s like they’re just taking the digital evidence at face value.

Take Kreme, for example. He’s a gas fitter who dabbled in selling drugs. The EncroChat evidence against him claimed he was dealing way more than he actually was. Since he was never caught with any drugs, his whole case hinges on the integrity of that hack.

Then there are Keith and Dale, who got slammed with sentences over 15 years. You’d think they were caught red-handed, but nope. They were held for four years without trial, and the evidence against them was shaky at best.

Both guys admitted to selling drugs but denied the big deals tied to EncroChat. The evidence against them was just a spreadsheet from the National Crime Agency, which they got through Interpol.

One major issue for defense teams is that they can’t even see the EncroChat evidence. The French police say how they got the data is a state secret. This has lawyers worried because it means defendants can’t check if the evidence is legit.

There are some tricky moral questions here about how the justice system treats “innocent” criminals. It’s a bit of a gray area. We feel for people like the sub postmasters who were wronged by faulty software, but we don’t always feel the same way about drug dealers who admit to some charges but deny others.

Then there’s BB, who’s been stuck waiting for his trial with multiple delays. He’s been in custody for almost five years now, and the next trial date is set for September 2025. He’s already served more time than he would have for the drugs alone.

For the weapons charge, the prosecution found some guns near a cell tower that BB’s phone connected to. That’s the extent of the evidence against him. He even has a witness who can back up his story, but it seems like the system is just dragging its feet.

Getting ready for these EncroChat trials takes forever. They’re pushing cases into 2025 and beyond, all stemming from arrests made years ago. Most defendants are stuck in jail instead of getting bail.

At first, everyone blamed Covid for the delays, but it’s clear that these trials require a long pre-trial process. Judges have to oversee hearings where defense teams challenge the evidence’s origin and reliability.

Investigating organized crime is tough, and sometimes it feels like the criminals are always one step ahead. The EncroChat hack led to some violent fallout in the criminal world because dealers thought someone had snitched on them.

But the legal system doesn’t seem to care about how long people are waiting. Charles Dickens wrote about the endless misery of court cases, and it feels like we’re seeing that again today, just in a digital context. I can’t shake the feeling that EncroChat might be causing some serious injustices.

Next week, the Secret Prisoner will share a letter from a female admirer. Stay tuned!