Dutchman fails to convince judges his trial was unfair because cops read his encrypted chats

A Dutch appeals court has kept a seven-year prison sentence in place for a man who hacked port IT systems with malware-stuffed USB sticks to help cocaine smugglers move containers, brushing off claims that police shouldn't have been reading his encrypted chats.

The Dutch national was arrested in 2021 and convicted the following year, but appealed, arguing that cops had no right to read his messages.

In a ruling dated January 9, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal upheld the convictions for complicity in computer hacking, complicity in the extended import of cocaine, and attempted extortion after finding the defendant played a central role in breaching port systems and turning digital access into a tool for organized crime.

The court heard how the defendant helped orchestrate the intrusion of a port operator's computer systems by having a terminal employee insert a USB stick containing malware into a workstation. That ...