800 arrested in the largest operation in history against encrypted crime
How to access messages between criminals from organized gangs?
Offering them a seemingly ‘secure’ communication support for this. That has been the ‘trap’ strategy that has allowed the largest police operation in history to be carried out against encrypted communication.
In recent days, a series of large-scale police actions have been carried out in 16 countries that have resulted in more than 700 house searches, more than 800 arrests and the seizure of more than 8 tons of cocaine, 22 tons of cannabis and cannabis resin, 2 tons of synthetic drugs (amphetamine and methamphetamine), 6 tons of synthetic drug precursors, 250 firearms, 55 luxury vehicles and more than $ 48 million in various currencies and cryptocurrencies globally.
The operation known as OTF Greenlight / Trojan Shield has been a globally coordinated macro-operation, where the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Dutch National Police (Politie) and the Police Authority have participated. Swedish (Polisen), in cooperation with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and 16 other countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, (Scotland) and the United States.
The strategy has been to develop and offer an encrypted device with features sought after by organized crime networks, such as remote wipe and duress passwords, to persuade criminal networks to switch to the device.
Since 2019, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, in close coordination with the Australian Federal Police, strategically developed and covertly operated an encryption device company, called ANOM, a black market accessible product, which grew to serve more than 12,000 encrypted devices to more than 300 criminal organizations operating in more than 100 countries, including Italian organized crime, outlaw motorcycle gangs and international drug trafficking organizations.
The goal of the new platform was to target global organized crime, drug trafficking, and money laundering organizations, regardless of where they operated.
Through this ‘trap’ they have been able to access the conversations and discussions that criminal users had in ANOM, obtaining 27 million messages, which have been analyzed for 18 months by the FBI and the other 16 countries of the international coalition, supported by Europol and in coordination with the US Drug Enforcement Administration.