Hundreds arrested in FBI encrypted phone sting

THE HAGUE: Police arrested more than 800 people worldwide in a huge global sting involving encrypted phones that were secretly planted by the FBI, law enforcement agencies said on Tuesday.

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.

The evidence from “Operation Trojan Shield” prevented around 100 murders and foiled several large-scale drug shipments, said officials from the FBI, the EU’s police agency Europol and other countries as far afield as Australia.

“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.”

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.

“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,” said Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, Deputy Director Operations at Europol. “More than 800 arrests, more than 700 locations searched, more than 8 tonnes of cocaine.”

Anom, the brainchild of the FBI and Australian police, was set up in 2019, and grew to service 12,000 encrypted devices linked to more than 300 criminal gangs operating in more than 100 countries.

The UK National Crime Agency said it had carried out “multiple operations” as a result of the sting, codenamed Operation Trojan Shield.

A spokeswoman said: “The National Crime Agency is proud to have been a partner in what has been an innovative and complex operation to target criminals operating globally and using encrypted communications platforms.

“As part of this, the NCA has conducted multiple operations targeting organised crime groups involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. “This operation has demonstrated that, in the face of the rapidly evolving threat from criminals exploiting the fast expansion of technology, the NCA is committed to working across international borders to target organised criminals, wherever they are and however they communicate.” The NCA would not reveal further details of the operations carried out or the estimated number of Anom users in the UK.

The bust echoes the previous success of the hack by French authorities last year of Encrochat, another secret communication service that was used by thousands of criminals.