in 2017, French Gendarmerie ( a part of the french public order system, that work outside the big city - Police is working in the big city. It's a join branch of army and interior ministry. It has a good reputation with computer, like using linux) detected phones in criminal affairs.
In 2019, a project called Cerberus was create with 60 gendarmes full time working on the case. They investigated servers located in france and tapped communications of theses servers.
In 2020, EncroChat issue a warning that their servers where compromised by the police.
avril 2020, joint operation with the nederland police
mai 2020 : all your base are belong to us
Every investigation was legal and within the control of judges from the french legal system.
post scripton