This New Yorker long form piece on the short period of time when drug trafficking networks were using custom software for encrypted phones and law enforcement cracked the networks is fascinating. Eventually the news about the networks being compromised leaked and the networks were shutdown. Thousands were arrested, but it had vitually no impact on the flow of drugs. The drug war is stupid, the way to win is to stop the criminalization of drugs in the first place as has happened in Portugal and Uruguay. I’m guessing traffickers have just switched to using more widely used consumer apps so they’re not such a target.

Anyway, it’s worth a listen / read.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/04/24/crooks-mistaken-bet-on-encrypted-phones