One of the stories from Europol

On 8 June 2021, an operation planned by Europol, the FBI, and others culminated in search warrants being executed simultaneously around the globe, leading to the arrest of over 800 people in 16 countries and the seizure of almost 40 tons of drugs.

The operation was called Trojan Shield, and its tool was a phone. The FBI and the Australian Federal Police built their own encrypted network and let criminals buy it. An encrypted device company called ANOM, run by the FBI with its partners, put about 12,000 devices in the hands of more than 300 criminal syndicates in over 100 countries. The investigators could read the messages sent on it.

Europol reported more than 700 house searches and 800 arrests, with over 8 tons of cocaine, 22 tons of cannabis, 2 tons of synthetic drugs and 6 tons of drug precursors seized. The precursors account for part of the almost 40 tons.

On 8 June 2021, an operation planned by Europol, the FBI, and others culminated in search warrants being executed simultaneously around the globe, leading to the arrest of over 800 people in 16 countries and the seizure of almost 40 tons of drugs.

§The work behind the headline

Europol’s part was coordination. According to eucrim, it brought law enforcement authorities together, shared information and fed intelligence into ongoing operations. That is data work at the scale of a continent. Warrants executed in 16 countries at once need information to move reliably between agencies that use different systems and different rules.

An agency like this runs on its IT as much as on its investigators.

§The contract

In 2024 Europol awarded its main ICT consultancy framework (reference EUROPOL/2023/OP/0002). The award notice in the EU’s Official Journal shows 13 tenders and a maximum value of EUR 112.6 million across all winners. Winners were chosen on 22 April 2024 and the contracts were concluded on 5 July 2024.

The framework works as a cascade, with ranked providers. One of them is the NexGenHub consortium, led by Aricoma, with Brayton Global and Qinshift, and with Tremend - Publicis Sapient as a partner. Work for EU institutions has since become a steady line for Tremend, including a place on the team for two digital euro components.

It’s just one of the stories from one of the most important law enforcement agencies, Europol, that has recently just chosen Tremend - Publicis Sapient as a partner.