Over 800 suspected gang members arrested in massive joint global sting operation
Law enforcement officials from dozens of nations across the globe took part in one of the most sophisticated crime stings in history on late Monday and early hours of Tuesday, which resulted in the arrest of hundreds of criminals across the world.
“The operation by Australian and European police and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation ensnared suspects in Australia, Asia, Europe, South America and the Middle East involved in the global narcotics trade,” Reuters reported. “Over 800 suspected members of organized crime gangs were arrested and $148 million in cash seized in raids around the world. Tons of drugs were also seized.”
Australian law enforcement officials and the FBI conceived the operation in 2018. Encrypted phones were distributed by the FBI containing the app ANoM installed on them, which allowed authorities to monitor all communications on the devices for over a year and a half.
“ANoM could only be found on phones bought through the black market, which had been stripped of the capability to make calls or send emails,” CNN reported. “The phones could only send messages to another device that had the app and criminals needed to know another criminal to get a device.”
“Over the last 18 months the FBI provided criminal organizations with over 300 encrypted devices in over 100 countries that allowed us to monitor their communications,” FBI Assistant Director Calvin Shivers said. “Not only have we heard about the number of arrests and the number of seizures, but over 100 threats to life that were mitigated.”
“Europol said police from a total of 16 countries launched raids on the basis of evidence from the phones, around 12,000 of which were distributed worldwide,” AFP reported. “Australian police said the supposedly hardened encrypted devices were handed out to operatives within the mafia, Asian crime syndicates, drug cartels, and outlaw motorcycle gangs as part of the elaborate FBI-led plot.”
“Today, Australia is a much safer country because of the extraordinary outcome under Operation Ironside,” Australian Foreign Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw stated. “It highlights how devastatingly effective the AFP is when it works with local and global partners, and takes its fight against transnational organized crime offshore. This world-first operation will give the AFP, state, and territory police years of intelligence and evidence. There is also the potential for a number of cold cases to be solved because of Operation Ironside.”
“However, tomorrow, and in the future, law enforcement will come up against serious challenges,” Kershaw said. “AN0M was an influential encrypted communications app but there are even bigger encrypted platforms that are being used by transnational and serious organized criminals targeting Australia. They are almost certainly using those encrypted platforms to flood Australia with drugs, guns and undermine our economy by laundering billions of dollars of illicit profit. Organized crime syndicates target Australia because sadly, the drug market is so lucrative. Australians are among the world’s biggest drug takers.”
“One of the causes behind domestic violence, sexual assault, neglect of children and unspeakable tragedy, is illicit drugs,” he continued. “Our first responders, our teachers and every Australian should be able to go to work and live in our communities without being harmed by an individual under the influence of dangerous drugs.”
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