An Australian man suspected of creating an encrypted messaging service used by criminals around the world to manage drug trafficking, money laundering and assassinations has been arrested in a major international police operation.
The app, a blogging engine known as “Ghost” that its creator claimed was impossible to hack, has been used by hundreds of criminals in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, international law enforcement agencies said Wednesday.
It was dismantled after several years of investigation by authorities from nine countries, with the support of Europol and Eurojust.
Fifty-one people arrested
For two years, law enforcement had hacked into the network and watched users discuss drug trafficking, money laundering, murder and other serious violence.
Nearly 50 people have been arrested in Italy, Ireland, Sweden, Canada and Australia.
Five crimes
The 32-year-old Australian man lived with his parents in Narwee, New South Wales, and had no criminal record. He was “slightly surprised” when officers came to arrest him, Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Ian McCartney said.
He was charged with five offences, the most serious of which carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison.
A drug lab has been dismantled in Australia, while weapons, drugs and more than €1m in cash have been seized worldwide so far, according to Europol.
The police also seized 376 phones with access to Ghost.
Self-destructing messages
Created nine years ago, Ghost only worked on specially modified smartphones.
The app, used by hundreds of suspected criminals for its convenience and anonymity, offered the ability to send a message followed by a specific code that caused all messages on the target phone to self-destruct, Eurojust said in a statement.
But the servers were located in France and Iceland, and the financial assets in the United States, Europol said.
Investigators managed to access the encrypted content in 2022 by hacking into one of the updates offered by the app’s creator. For two years, they were able to track the platform’s growing popularity among criminals.
afp/juma
