A 32-year-old “computer geek” has been arrested in Australia on suspicion of creating an encrypted messaging service used by criminals around the world to manage drug trafficking, money laundering and assassinations, thanks to police cooperation in nine countries, Australian law enforcement said Wednesday.
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The app, a blogging engine known as Ghost that its creator claimed was impossible to hack, was used by hundreds of criminals in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, the Australian Federal Police said in a statement.
But for two years, several police forces around the world had hacked into the network and watched users discuss drug trafficking, money laundering, assassinations and other serious violence.
The Ghost creator, an Australian who lived with his parents in Narwee, New South Wales, and had no criminal record, was “slightly surprised” when officers came to arrest him, said federal police assistant commissioner Ian McCartney.
He was charged with five offences, the most serious of which carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison.
Police also seized some 376 phones with access to Ghost, and arrested dozens of Australians across the country. Other arrests were also made in Italy, Ireland, Sweden and Canada.
“Today we have clearly demonstrated that criminal networks, however hidden they may believe themselves to be, cannot escape our collective effort,” said the director of Europol, Belgian Commissioner Catherine De Bolle, quoted in the Australian press release.
Located by the gendarmes
Europol called a press conference at 9am GMT, online from its headquarters in The Hague. In total, police from nine countries took part in the global sweep.
Created nine years ago, Ghost only worked on specially modified smartphones that sold for around 2,350 Australian dollars (1,430 euros), a price that included six months of service and technical support.
Ghost is reportedly used by hundreds of suspected criminals for its configuration (publicly available code) and anonymity benefits, according to Australian police. But 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, investigators were able to track the platform’s growing popularity among criminals.
Fifty assassination threats have been foiled in Australia. In one case, investigators intercepted an image of a person with a gun to his head who was saved within an hour, according to Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Kristy Schofield.
It was French police who finally spotted the creator of the application in Australia.
Mme Schofield said officers had to act extremely quickly to ensure the suspect, who had the ability to “wipe everything” on the system, did not succeed when he was surrounded. “Our tactical teams were able to apprehend him and secure the computer equipment within 30 seconds of entering,” she said.
In 2021, the dismantling of a similar network, ANOM, led to the arrest of hundreds of suspects around the world. Little did these people know that ANOM was actually produced and distributed by the FBI, the American federal police, and its Australian counterpart.
Police in the United States and other countries were able to decrypt 27 million messages, many of which were linked to criminal activity.
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