OE Watch Commentary: Pablo Escobar was shot to death on the roof of a home in Medellin, Colombia on 2 December 1993. His death resulted in the collapse of one of the most famous cartels of all time, but it taught other Colombian cartels an important message as an intercepted phone call is what led police to his location. Other cartels learned that more secure communication lines are needed in order to operate. According to Colombian authorities, as outlined in the accompanying excerpted article from Xataka, cartels began to change their methods of communication drastically in the late 1990s. Specifically, they began to communicate messages in small groups or face-to-face, as opposed to using commercial devices. Another important change implemented following the death of Escobar was that drug cartels became highly proficient in conducting their own counter-intelligence to intercept the calls of authorities. Cartels carried out interceptions prior to the death of Escobar and intensified their activities in this after his death.
The Xataka article also points out that authorities arrested a communications specialist in Cali known as Gilberto Mora Mesa on 12 October 2017. At the time of his arrest, he was in possession of communication equipment that is not even utilized by intelligence services in Colombia. This same source indicated that the technology possessed by cartels allowed them to intercept phone calls of high ranking government, military, and police officials, which in turn enabled them to gain valuable knowledge about operations. Among the devices seized were items to identify and trace phone numbers, equipment used to determine if a phone is being intercepted and jammers to ensure phone calls are not being listened to in the first place.
However, it recently became public knowledge that a Canadian company is currently under investigation for its role in selling encrypted mobile phones that were used to conceal criminal activity for drug cartels; specifically the Sinaloa Cartel. As discussed in the excerpted article from Xataka Movil, authorities allege that “(the company’s) networks were specifically designed to prevent law enforcement from intercepting and monitoring communications on the network,” and that the company provided services intended to aid transnational drug trafficking organizations.
This source further points out that encrypted email platforms are not illegal, and there are many legitimate reasons people use encryption to protect their electronic messages. Similarly, it is not necessarily illegal to sell a phone installed with encryption technology; however, in this case, authorities say the company’s entire business model revolved around selling encrypted phones to crime groups. The excerpted article from InSight Crime also discusses how the company used servers based in Panama and Hong Kong, thinking that those countries would be less likely to scrutinize the communications or cooperate with foreign law enforcement authorities.
In reality, the creation of sophisticated communication and interception equipment gives cartels an edge to increase their productivity and deceive authorities, because if they already know how they are going to react to a certain situation, they can simply improvise. Sophisticated communication and interception equipment is also unique in the sense that not every criminal group has them and those with the best equipment hold a certain edge over those not privy to it. It is no secret that cartels have spent and will continue to spend insurmountable amounts of money to keep their communications safe and to intercept the communications of anyone looking to seize their shipments or hurt their business in any way. End OE Watch Commentary (Fiegel)