For two years, the FBI had managed an encrypted messaging system widely used by criminals. Thanks to the intercepted messages, the authorities of 16 countries were able to launch a vast worldwide net to arrest 800 suspects.
Police from 16 countries have just successfully completed the operation ” the most sophisticated in the world ” against the criminal networks. Some 800 suspects belonging to the Mafia, motorcycle gangs, drug trafficking networks and many others have been arrested across the globe. The operation was named Trojan Shield (« Trojan Shield ”), Or Ironside in Australia.
The net was made possible by Anom, a system of special devices containing encrypted messaging, which traded on the black market for around $ 2,000. Far from guaranteeing secure exchanges, the servers were actually managed by the FBI who had been using it to spy on criminal networks since 2019. The authorities thus had access to 27 million messages exchanged between criminals.
The FBI operated a network of 12,000 encrypted devices at the hands of criminals
Anom gained popularity after authorities dismantled courier services EncroChat and Sky ECC, and offered features like the ability to wipe the device’s content remotely or set up a special password, which the owner can give under duress instead of password real to activate a function that notifies its contacts. In total, there were more than 12,000 devices in circulation, belonging to 300 criminal syndicates in around 100 countries.
Authorities searched more than 700 homes, and seized more than 8 tons of cocaine, 2 tons of amphetamine and methamphetamine, 22 tons of cannabis, 250 guns fire and $ 48 million in liquid and cryptomonnaies. The operation is the result of cooperation between 16 countries, including European countries, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
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