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El Chapo, British Drug Kingpin Reportedly Used the Same Communication Tech to Maintain Secrecy

© AP Photo / Eduardo VerdugoIn this Feb. 22, 2014 file photo, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, center, is escorted to a helicopter in handcuffs by Mexican navy marines at a hanger in Mexico City, after he was captured overnight in the beach resort town of Mazatlan
In this Feb. 22, 2014 file photo, Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, center, is escorted to a helicopter in handcuffs by Mexican navy marines at a hanger in Mexico City, after he was captured overnight in the beach resort town of Mazatlan - Sputnik International
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The comm handsets employed by the drug lords' henchmen were apparently fitted with an option to completely wipe the device if it ever fell into the hands of the authorities.

The now-imprisoned boss of the Sinaloa Cartel Joaquin Guzman, also known as "El Chapo", and notorious British drug lord Robert Dawes have apparently employed similar technological measures to keep their communications secret, the Daily Star reports.

According to the newspaper, prior to his arrest and subsequent extradition to the US where he got sentenced to life in jail, El Chapo outfitted his underlings with customized handsets, each containing an encrypted SIM and a "self-destruct" function that would wipe the device if a special code was entered.

And it appears that Guzman wasn't the only criminal mastermind to use such tech, as in the UK, drug kingpin Robert Dawes, who was jailed back in 2018, employed “these special encrypted handsets with a No1BC system” in order to keep his identity hidden.

As the newspaper claims, not only weren't some of Dawes' underlings aware who they were working for, evidence from National Crime Agency (NCA) suggests he was “the first criminal to adopt the system”.

"These were major players in control of a phone network which could not be penetrated", one NCA officer said. "Dawes has always been very switched on with his comms. But once he had control of this secret end-to-end encryption it became more difficult."

The officer added that Dawes "would not deal with anyone on anything sensitive unless they were on this network."

"It was also the first time we had seen a whole organised crime group operating in a number of countries including the UK using the same network like this", they remarked. "We were shooting blind because we weren’t picking up on these comms once the No1BC system was being used."
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