Global sting nets hundreds of criminals tricked into using FBI-run app

A global sting involving an encrypted communications platform developed by the FBI has sparked raids and arrests around the world, delivering “an unprecedented blow” to crime gangs.

Police arrested more than 800 people worldwide in a huge global sting involving encrypted phones that were secretly planted by the FBI.

Officers were able to read the messages of global underworld figures in around 100 countries as they plotted drug deals, arms transfers and gangland hits on the compromised ANOM devices, law enforcement agencies said on Tuesday.

Operation Trojan Shield involved police swoops in 16 nations. The operation was led by the FBI but also involved the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the European Union police agency Europol and law enforcement agencies in more than a dozen countries.

More than 32 tonnes of drugs – cocaine, cannabis, amphetamines and methamphetamines – were seized along with 250 firearms, 55 luxury cars and more than $148 million in cash and cryptocurrencies, Europol said.

"The results are staggering," FBI Assistant Director Calvin Shivers told reporters at Europol's HQ in The Netherlands.

He said the FBI had provided criminal syndicates in over 100 countries with the devices over the last 18 months "that allowed us to monitor their communications."

"This information led over the last week to hundreds of law enforcement operations on a global scale from New Zealand to Australia to Europe and the USA, with impressive results," Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, Deputy Director Operations at Europol said at the press conference.

It was, said Australian Federal Police Commander Jennifer Hearst, “a watershed moment in global law enforcement history.”

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Eyes on criminal phones

The seeds of the operations were sown when law enforcement agencies earlier took down two other encrypted platforms, EncroChat and SkyECC. That meant crime gangs that traffic drugs and organise underworld hits around the world were in the market for new secure phones.

The FBI had just what they needed. 

According to unsealed court documents cited by US media outlet Vice, the FBI worked with insiders to develop and distribute AN0M devices through the Phantom Secure network of existing criminal customers, unloading 50  – mostly to Australia – as a "beta test."

The devices are said to have had no email, call or GPS services and could only message other ANOM phones.

They could only be bought on the black market – for around $2,000 – and required a code from an existing user to access.

"They actually came to us seeking these devices," Shivers said.

Australian agencies helped get the phones in the hands of underworld "influencers" – including an Australian fugitive drug boss on the run in Turkey – in a bid to gain trust.

The cover appeared to be blown in March 2021 when a blogger detailed AN0M security flaws and claimed it was a scam linked to Australia, the United States and other members of the FiveEyes intelligence sharing network.

The post was later deleted.

“There was a void that was created by a lack of these encrypted platforms,” said Calvin Shivers of the FBI. “So that created an opportunity for collaboration with our international partners to not only develop the specific tool but also to develop the process of gathering the intelligence and disseminating the intelligence.”

The app formed the backbone of the operation, allowing police to look over the shoulders of criminals as they discussed hits, drug shipments and other crimes.

Intelligence gathered and analyzed “enabled us to prevent murders. It led to the seizure of drugs that led to the seizure of weapons. And it helped prevent a number of crimes,” Shivers said.

Earlier Tuesday, authorities in Australia and New Zealand said they’d dealt a huge blow to organised crime after hundreds of criminals were tricked into using the messaging app.

Australian authorities said they arrested 224 people and seized more than four tonnes of drugs and $35 million in an ongoing operation that dates back three years.

New Zealand police said they had arrested 35 people and seized drugs and assets worth millions of dollars.

Germany arrests over 70 suspects 

German police detained more than 70 suspects and searched over 150 locations in Germany as a part of the global crackdown.

The raids, focused in the western state of Hesse and in cooperation with Europol, were part of an investigation initiated by US law enforcement authorities that started in 2018, Frankfurt public prosecutors office said.

Authorities seized hundreds of kilogramsme of drugs, more than 20 weapons, over 30 luxury cars, and cash worth 250,000 euros, as well as IT equipment.

The suspects are accused of using prepaid phones containing an encrypted messaging app to deal in weapons and drugs, prosecutors said.

European officials did not break down all arrests in each country, but a Swedish official said 70 had been arrested in Sweden and a Dutch official said 49 were arrested in the Netherlands.

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