Anom devices were active in more than 100 countries. — Courtesy of US Department of Justice/TNS SAN DIEGO: In 2018, a San Diego-led federal sting secretly launched an encrypted communications company. Over the next few years, FBI agents, working with law enforcement partners in Australia, New Zealand and Europe, seeded thousands of spyware-infected phones into the hands of criminals and used them to build cases against 300 organised crime groups, from biker gangs to Italian mafia cells, around the world. But one country was off-limits for investigating agents: the United States. While some 800 people were arrested throughout Europe and Australia in widely publicised takedowns announced last month, no one was arrested in the US. The US attorney's office in San Diego is prosecuting 17 people tied to the sting, dubbed Operation Trojan Shield. All are foreign nationals who will need to be extradited; some remain fugitives.