Operation Dark Phone: Murder by Text review – do we really need to see these criminals on the toilet?

This is a gripping account of how police caught hundreds of gang members by infiltrating a shady encrypted mobile network. But the terrible reconstructions are just unnecessarySure, they may be trafficking drugs and firearms and plotting murders, but – really – organised criminal gangs are just like you and me. Operation Dark Phone: Murder By Text opens with a reconstruction of a British gang leader texting one of his crew (some scenes have been dramatised, we are told, but all SMS messages are real). “You OK bro?” asks the associate. “Yeah, just making brekkie,” our fearsome crim replies, sending a picture of what appears to be a bowl of porridge and cucumber. Very weird breakfast but, look, that’s not the point. The point is that Operation Dark Phone – Channel 4’s new four-parter about how police infiltrated a shady encrypted phone network – is littered with so-bad-they’re-actually-just-bad reconstructions of this smug, shirtless character swaggering around his greige Dubai penthouse. As well as snaps of his food, we must watch him on the bog with his Calvins around his ankles; taking mirror selfies of his tattooed gym bod; and reclining in bed with an LED tooth-whitening kit in his mouth. It’s less Tony Soprano, more Joey Essex. Channel 4 provided one episode for review, which is a shame because the other half of the programme is pretty interesting. Away from the reconstructions, this is a documentary about how the UK’s National Crime Agency gained access to that encrypted network alongside their European counterparts for 74 days. It was, says the NCA’s Marni Roberts, “like being down a dark pipe, and suddenly putting a bright light on.” Elsewhere, her colleague Matt Horne describes EncroChat as “the LinkedIn of organised crime”. However, it was also totally anonymous: once inside, it was down to the NCA to piece together clues such as addresses and photos to work out who the gang members were. (Luckily, our man – codenamed Live-long – sent a selfie to a group chat, which helped things along nicely). EncroChat offered a treasure trove of information, but that data was also delivered to law enforcement with a 24-hour delay. As such, when it came to thwarting the very real threats to life discussed in the messages, they were often operating on borrowed time. Sometimes, they were too late. As investigator Mick Pope puts it after a particularly shocking few days in north-west England: “‘Eckin’ hell, Warrington’s turned into the fuckin’ wild west over the weekend.”If soundbites like that make Operation Dark Phone sound less than serious, then rest assured there are some truly heinous characters at the centre of it. As well as swapping pictures of their porridge, Live-long and his gang casually arranged acid attacks as if they were ordering takeaways. His rival, Ace Prospect, was also on EncroChat; when one of his underlings expressed his reservations at launching a grenade into an enemy’s garden, Ace said it would be fine, because their child was six months old, so too young to pick it up. When the documentary zooms in on just how dangerous these people are, it is chilling. But it also makes the dramatic parts feel even tackier. Another problem: an alias of one of the criminals was Top Shag, another was Ball Sniffer. I know, I know, the texts are all supposed to be real and verbatim. But surely they could have changed those names a little? Watching NCA agents keep a straight face while discussing Ball Sniffer’s activities feels like something only Chris Morris could have masterminded. The real tragedy here, though, is that Operation Dark Phone would have been interesting enough in its own right, without a cringey sideshow. The series was made by the team behind 24 Hours in Police Custody, notable for finding the drama and discomfort in the everyday. Not every series can be a fly-on-the-wall affair, but this goes too far the other way, and risks glamorising these men. If that sounds far-fetched, consider that Ace Prospect is shown enjoying sushi and acupuncture at an “unknown location” in Asia, which looks amazing. As we learn, of course, crime does not pay, especially when you are as incompetent as this lot who – as well as sending selfies – also ended up selling weapons to their rivals by mistake. But in trying to make this into a piece of millennial-friendly true crime, it feels as if Operation Dark Phone gives the bad guys too much of a starring role. The NCA clearly did all the hard work here – here’s hoping we get to hear some more about it.Operation Dark Phone: Murder by Text is on Channel 4. Continue reading...

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