Global police dismantle encrypted messaging app used by criminals

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International police forces have taken down an encrypted communication platform and arrested 51 people, marking a success for co-ordinated efforts to crack down on anonymous messaging services used by criminal groups.

Europol and law enforcement agencies from nine countries dismantled Ghost, an online platform that used three different encryption standards and allowed users to destroy all messages by sending a specific code, Europol announced on Wednesday.

The crackdown is the latest operation by international agencies to decode encrypted messaging services used by criminals to manage their international operations, following the takedown of platforms such as EncroChat and Sky ECC in recent years.

“Italian organised crime, outlaw motorcycle gangs, Middle Eastern organised crime and Korean organised crime have been using Ghost in Australia and overseas to import illicit drugs and to order the killing of individuals involved in various criminal enterprises,” said David McLean, assistant commissioner of Australia’s federal police, at a press conference in The Hague.

Based on a joint investigation that began in 2022, 38 people were arrested in Australia, 11 in Ireland, one in Canada and one in Italy, the latter belonging to the Sacra Corona Unita mafia organisation based in the southern Puglia region, Europol said.

McLean said Ghost was administered by a 32-year-old man from Australia, one of the operation’s principal targets.

As a result of the decryption operation, where officers broke the app’s code so they could read users’ messages, the death or injury of as many as 50 people could have been prevented, McLean said.

Further arrests were expected, Europol added.

According to Europol, the EU’s law enforcement co-operation agency, several thousand people used Ghost around the world, with around 1,000 messages exchanged every day.

National police have been struggling to tackle the global operations of criminal groups, and the ability to read their messages is an important element in prosecuting them.

“Encrypted phone communication is a challenge for contemporary policing, but one which we are now making significant inroads into,” said Justin Kelly, assistant commissioner of the Garda Síochána, Ireland’s police force.

Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, deputy executive director of Europol, said Ghost had a smaller user base than previously decoded platforms EncroChat or SkyECC, indicating that criminals are using a wider range of encrypted message platforms.

“The landscape is now much more fragmented, we have multiple smaller networks that are used by the criminals,” he said.

EncroChat was decrypted by international police forces in 2020. Last year, Europol said its decryption led to more than 6,500 arrests worldwide and about €900,000, mostly in cash, seized.

Afterwards, many users switched to another platform called Sky ECC, which was unlocked by Belgian, Dutch and French law enforcement in 2021, leading to large-scale raids and arrests.

Those decryptions are still leading to fresh charges and convictions. A Brussels court is scheduled to hand down a judgment based on decrypted information from SkyECC involving more than 120 defendants next month.