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Mafia, bikies and criminal gangs were in ruins after police launched their “sting of the century” – but it would’ve been impossible without one hacker.

Mafia, bikies and criminal gangs were in ruins after police launched their “sting of the century” – but it would’ve been impossible without one hacker.

Hundreds of international criminals were tricked into using an encrypted messaging app secretly controlled by the FBI, exposing their drug smuggling, money laundering, and even planned hits to a sting operation, officials said Tuesday.

Before the takedown of another shadow encrypted app in March, there were 3000 active users of An0m. This surged to 9000 by May.

A major international police operation that saw 800 suspects rounded up in countries around the world began as an offshoot of a joint RCMP-FBI investigation into a Richmond company called Phantom Secure.

SAN DIEGO — The full extent of an unprecedented FBI effort to beat the criminal underworld at its own encrypted-communications game became clearer Tuesday following a two-day takedown, with some 800 arrests worldwide and San Diego racketeering indictments against 17 high-level targets, according to federal authorities. Dubbed Operation Trojan Shield, the effort was largely led by FBI agents and federal prosecutors in San Diego who covertly created a closed-loop encryption cellphone service...

The Anom encrypted messaging app allowed police to monitor gangs around the world. PNG’s casino plan faces opposition from welfare groups. Nigeria bans Twitter after the president’s account is temporarily suspended. 

When the FBI dismantled an encrypted messaging service based in Canada in 2018, agents noticed users moving to other networks. Instead of following their tracks to rivals, investigators decided on a new tactic: creating their own service. ANOM, a secure-messaging service built by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, launched in October 2019 and solidified its following after authorities took down another rival. Popularity spread by word of mouth. When ANOM was taken down Monday, authoriti...

The FBI began planning a sophisticated sting that led to the arrests of 800 suspected organised criminals in raids around the world three years ago. Police this week carried out hundreds of searches, seized drugs, fire-arms, luxury vehicles and cash in co-ordinated operation across multiple countries. The targets were organised crime groups who had placed their trust in an encrypted phone application called An0m to arrange drug deals, kidnappings, and assassinations. An informer working for the ...

Mafia, bikies and criminal gangs were in ruins after police launched their “sting of the century” – but it would’ve been impossible without one hacker.