Six arrested after 'Dutch torture chambers' found
Six men have already been arrested in holland following the discovery of seven delivery containers changed into cells and torture chambers.
The containers were found in Wouwse Plantage, southern of Rotterdam, after French law enforcement cracked encrypted phones employed by criminals.
Dutch police said the containers were found before these were used, and potential victims were now on hiding.
In the containers was a dentist chair with straps and handcuffs.
Police also found a building in Rotterdam, that they believe was first another criminal base.
The suspects were arrested on 22 June following a Franco-Dutch procedure to infiltrate the EncroChat encrypted phone program.
Police intercepted millions of communications including that of among the suspects, a 40-year-old gentleman from The Hague. Investigators could actually gain access to his contacts via an Encrochat mobile phone.
After locating the containers in April in Wouwse Plantage, nearby the Belgian border, police put the region under observation and discovered that multiple men were focusing on them nearly every day. When the containers had been almost finished, investigators decided to intervene.
A video posted online by police shows officers arresting the suspects and in addition entering the containers.
Officers found handcuffs mounted on the floor surfaces and ceilings of the structures, which had been soundproofed.
In one container, they also discovered police garments and bulletproof vests. In another, they located pruning shears, scalpels and balaclavas.
Two of the suspects have also been detained for possession of weapons.
The arrests are among 800 built across Europe after EncroChat messages were intercepted and decoded.
EncroChat, which has now been taken down, was located in France and had around 60,000 subscribers.
It operated in customised Android mobile phones and, according to its webpage, provided "worry-free secure communications".
Customers could actually gain access to features such as for example self-destructing text messages, which deleted from the recipient's device after some amount of time.
The machine also had a panic wipe, which meant all info could possibly be removed from these devices by entering a four-digit code from the lock-screen.
Gangs are believed to have used the equipment to plot attacks on rival groups, approach ways of enforcing drug debts and arrange for money to come to be laundered. Threats specific on the site included acid episodes and chopping off limbs.
