If you've heard of EncroChat, I can guarantee that the reason that you've heard of it is because of criminality across Europe.
EncroChat was a European encrypted communications service, now defunct, that offered modified smartphones, known as EncroPhones, to clients seeking high-level privacy from 2016 until its closure in June 2020. The platform, which was operated from France and the Netherlands, served approximately 60,000 subscribers, with law enforcement estimating that over 90 percent of them were involved in organized criminal activities.
It is not known who founded and owns EncroChat. Dutch journalist Jan Meeus has reported that a Dutch organized crime group was involved and provided financial backing to the developers.
EncroChat has come back to the forefront after the recent sentencing of Jamie Rothwell and associates known as a top-leading Salford gang members' EncroChat device was hacked by European law enforcement which tracked him down and saw him extradited back to the UK.
EncroChat was finally shutdown for good in June of 2020 after being hacked by multiple law enforcement agencies.