Criminals believed their cell phones were safe, but the provider was the FBI: this is how a global drug network fell

Cell phones, bought on the black market, served only one function hidden behind a calculator app: sending encrypted messages and photos.

For years, organized crime figures around the world have used these devices to orchestrate international drug shipments, coordinate arms and explosives trafficking, and discuss contract killings, enforcement authorities have said. laws. Users were so confident in the security of the devices that they often did not express their plans in code, but in plain language.

Without knowing, The whole network was managed by the FBI, in coordination with the Australian police.

Law enforcement around the world on Tuesday revealed a three-year operation, in which, they said, they intercepted more than 20 million messages and detained at least 800 people in more than a dozen countries.

The operation, known as Trojan Shield, represents a breakthrough for law enforcement. Although authorities have cracked or shut down crypto platforms in the past – such as a so-called EncroChat that European police have managed to hack -, This is the first known case in which authorities have controlled an entire encrypted network since its inception.

Europol, the European law enforcement agency, described the effort as “one of the largest and most sophisticated police operations to date in the fight against encrypted criminal activity.”

“Countless fallout will take place in the coming weeks,” Europol said in a statement. US law enforcement is expected to announce new arrests on Tuesday.

In Australia, the operation captured national and international organized crime groups and outlaw motorcycle gangs, arresting more than 200 people, authorities said. In Sweden, police arrested 155 people suspected of serious crimes and prevented the murder of 10 people through the operation, authorities said in a statement. The operation also targeted Italian organized crime and international drug trafficking organizations, and hundreds more have been arrested in Europe.

“We have been in the pockets of organized crime”Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said Tuesday.

The FBI operation, according to court documents released by the Justice Department on Monday, began in early 2018 after the office dismantled a Canada-based encryption service called Phantom Secure. The company, officials said, provided encrypted cell phones to drug cartels and other criminal groups.

Identifying a gap in the underground market, the FBI recruited a former Phantom Secure distributor who had developed a new encrypted communication system called Anom. The informant agreed to work for the FBI and let the office control the network in exchange for the possibility of a reduced prison term, court documents show. The FBI paid the informant $ 120,000, according to the documents.

Anom devices were cell phones that had been stripped of all of their normal functions. The only app that worked was disguised as a calculator: after entering a code, users could send messages and photos with end-to-end encryption. In three years, more than 12,000 Anom devices have been sold to more than 300 criminal organizations operating in more than 100 countries, according to Europol.

In collaboration with the Australian authorities, the FBI and the informant developed a “master key” which allowed them to divert the messages to a third country and to decrypt them, thus intercepting more than 27 million messages.

Authorities also relied on the informant to send the devices to extremely closed criminal networks. The whistleblower began in October 2018 by offering the devices to three other distributors with links to organized crime in Australia.

According to law enforcement officials, there was a breakthrough when they managed to get one of the devices into the hands of Hakan Ayik, an Australian who fled the country ten years ago and who, according to the police, directed the importation of drugs from Turkey. .

Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, deputy executive director of Europol, said the operation offered law enforcement “an exceptional perspective on the criminal landscape”.

Using encrypted cell phones, the criminals organized the shipment of cocaine from Ecuador to Belgium in a container hidden inside cans of tuna, according to US court documents. Cocaine was also trafficked in sealed French diplomatic envelopes from Bogotá, the capital of Colombia.

Australian authorities have acknowledged that Anom carried only a small percentage of the total volume of encrypted communications sent by criminal networks. But they said Anom has an advantage: those who run it can listen – directly – to the target audience and give users what they want.

After users said they wanted newer and smaller phones, authorities started providing them.

Australian authorities said they disclosed the operation on Tuesday due to the need to disrupt ongoing dangerous programs and the limited timeframe given by judicial authorities alleged to intercept communications.

Anom’s website previously featured sleek graphics and glossy videos reminiscent of Apple ads. On Tuesday I got a new message: Users who wanted to “discuss how their account has been linked to an ongoing investigation” could enter their account details.

Europol said that in addition to the 800 arrests, operations carried out in recent days in 16 countries had resulted in 700 house searches, the seizure of tons of drugs, 250 firearms, 55 luxury vehicles and $ 48 million in various currencies and cryptocurrencies.

Yan Zhuang reported from Melbourne, Australia, and Elian Peltier from London. Christina Anderson contributed reporting from Stockholm.

Yan Zhuang is a reporter for the New York Times in Australia and resides in Melbourne. @ yanzhuang25Elian

Peltier is a reporter for the London office of the New York Times and focuses on breaking news. @ElianPeltierYan

(c) The New York Times

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