U.K. police tried DDoS style attacks to disrupt service on suspected drug dealer's phones in cases where they couldn't prosecute but were looking to interfere with the drug trade.
Although the attack works in a different way than actual DDoS attacks, the end result was nevertheless the same as the officers would use telephone companies to target individual phones using their IMEI, a unique number given to each phone, according to a Vice's Motherboard.
A senior law enforcement officer will apply for a court order to be given to the user's telephone provider compelling the provider to restrict service to that specific device.
“Where prosecution is not possible, the police and the NCA have been clear that closing down the phone lines will seriously disrupt county lines drug dealing and the associated violence and exploitation,” Baroness Williams of Trafford, the minister of state, said during an exchange on drug dealing telecommunication restriction orders in November 2017.
