The criminals thought the device was safe. But the seller is the FBI
Over the years, organized crime figures worldwide rely on devices to regulate the delivery of international drugs, coordinate trafficking weapons and explosives, and discuss contract murder, said law enforcement officials.
Cellphones, which are obtained in the black market, are carried out a hidden function behind the calculator application: send encrypted messages and photos.
Over the years, organized crime figures worldwide rely on devices to regulate the delivery of international drugs, coordinate trafficking weapons and explosives, and discuss contract murder, said law enforcement officials. Users trust the security of the device so much that they often put their plans not in the code, but in ordinary language.
Unknown to them, the entire network was run by the FBI, coordinating with Australian police.
On Tuesday, global law enforcement officials revealed a three-year operation, where they said they had intercepted more than 20 million messages and captured at least 800 people in more than a dozen countries.
Operation, known as Trojan Shield, represents a breakthrough for law enforcement. Although the authorities have solved or closed the encrypted platform in the past - as it was called aslary that the police in Europe were successfully hacked - this was the first example known where officials had controlled the entire encrypted network from the start.
Europol, the European Police Agency, describes efforts as "one of the largest and most sophisticated law enforcement operations to date in combating encrypted crime activities."
"Countless spin-off operations will be carried out in the coming weeks," Europol said in a statement. American law enforcement officials are expected to announce further arrests on Tuesday.
In Australia, efforts ensnared domestic and international organized crime groups and motorcycle gangs banned, with more than 200 people arrested, officials said. In Sweden, the police arrested 155 people because of serious crime suspicion and prevented the murder of 10 people thanks to the operation, the authorities said in a statement. This operation also targets Italian organized crime and international drug trafficking organizations, and hundreds of people arrested in Europe.
"We have been in the back bag of organized crime," Reece Kershaw, Australian Federal Police Commissioner, said on Tuesday.
The FBI operation, according to court documents that the Ministry of Justice was not sealed on Monday, having the origin in early 2018 after the bureau dismantled Canadian-based encryption services called Phantom Secure. The company, officials said, supplied encrypted cellphones to drug cartels and other criminal groups.
Seeing the emptiness in the underground market, the FBI recruits former Phantom Secure distributor who has developed a newly encrypted communication system called Anom. The informant agreed to work for the FBI and let the Bureau control the network for the possibility of reducing prison sentences, according to court documents. The FBI paid the informant of $ 120,000, said the document.
Anom devices are cellphones that have been stripped of all normal functions. The only work application is disguised as a calculator function: After entering the code, users can send messages and photos with end-to-end encryption. More than three years, more than 12,000 Anom devices are sold to more than 300 criminal syndicates operating in more than 100 countries, according to Europol.
Working with Australian authorities, the FBI and informants developed "main keys" which allowed them to divert messages to third countries and decrypt them, eventually intercepting more than 27 million messages.
The authorities also rely on informants to get devices to very insular criminal networks. Informants began in October 2018 by offering a device to three other distributors with connections for organized crime in Australia.
Great rest, said law enforcement officials, came when they could get one of the devices into Hakan Ayik, an Australian who escaped from the country a decade ago and who believed had directed drug imports from Turkey.
Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, Deputy Executive Director of Europol, said the operation gave the law enforcement "extraordinary insight on the criminal landscape."
Through encrypted cellphones, criminals organize shipping cocaine from Ecuador to Belgium in a container hidden in tuna cans, according to the court documents u.s .. Cocaine is also traded in the envelope sealed diplomatic French from Bogotá, Colombian capital
The Australian Authority acknowledged that Anom only committed a small percentage of the total encrypted communication volume sent by a criminal network. But they say that Anom has the advantage: those who run it can listen - directly - to the target audience and give users what they want.
After the user talks about wanting a smaller and newer cellphone, the authorities begin to provide it.
Australian officials said they had revealed Tuesday's operations because the need to disturb the hazardous plot is currently moving and because the limited time frame for legal authorities was called to intercept communication.
The previous Anom website displays slim graphics and glossy videos that remind the Apple ad. On Tuesday, he has a new message: the user who wants to "discuss how your account has been linked to the ongoing investigation" can enter their account details.
Europol said that in addition to 800 arrests, the operation carried out in the last few days in 16 countries has caused 700 homes for searching, tons of drugs, 250 firearms, 55 luxury vehicles and $ 48 million in several currencies and Cryptocurrency.
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