The chief executive of Sky Global Inc. has hit back at U.S. authorities after he was indicted late last week over his involvement in the encrypted messaging app that was at the center of a criminal investigation in Europe.

The app, Sky ECC, was the focus of police targeting criminals in the Netherlands and Belgium after the encryption on the app was cracked at the end of last year. The police monitored communications between the app’s more than 70,000 customers, targeting them in coordinated raids on March 9. Along with arresting drug dealers, police also uncovered a network of laboratories where crystal methamphetamine and other drugs were being produced.

It was noted at the time it’s not clear if any arrests were made when it comes to the operators of Sky ECC, although servers were seized. Encrypted apps are not illegal in the European Union, but unlike in the U.S., there are no strong liability protections when services are used for illegal purposes.

Although not arrested, at least yet, Sky Global CEO Jean-Francois Eap and Thomas Herdman, a former high-level distributor of Sky Global devices, were indicted by a federal grand jury on March 12 on a conspiracy to violate the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Warrants were issued for their arrests as the Justice Department claimed that the pair had “knowingly and intentionally participated in a criminal enterprise that facilitated the transnational importation and distribution of narcotics through the sale and service of encrypted communications devices.”

The indictment also alleges that Sky Global’s devices were specifically designed to prevent law enforcement from actively monitoring the communications between members of transnational criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. “Sky Global’s purpose was to create, maintain and control a method of secure communication to facilitate the importation, exportation and distribution of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine into Australia, Asia, Europe, and North America… to launder the proceeds of such drug trafficking conduct; and to obstruct investigations of drug trafficking and money laundering organizations,” the Department of Justice said.

Eap is not happy with being indicted and even went as far as issuing a press release arguing that Sky Global’s technology was not created to prevent police from monitoring criminal organizations but to prevent anyone from monitoring and spying on the global community.

“The indictment against me personally in the United States is an example of the police and the government trying to vilify anyone who takes a stance against unwarranted surveillance,” Eap said. “It seems that it is simply not enough that you have not done anything illegal. There is no question that I have been targeted, as Sky Global has been targeted, only because we build tools to protect the fundamental right to privacy.”

Legally the case isn’t clear-cut. As The Register noted, unlike a previous case where the owner of a secure app was indicted and caught on record saying he was fine with drug transactions, the case against Eap rests on his instituting an “ask nothing/do nothing” approach to clients.

Authorities would have to prove that Eap knowingly allowed drug trading and was not protected under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The reality is that illegal activities occur on all sorts of apps, but Section 230 provides liability against companies like Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc. from being liable for that content. Whether that applies in the case of Sky Global is now up to a judge to decide.

Image: Sky ECC