"The review of ANOM messages has initiated numerous high-level public corruption cases in several countries." ![]() There was also evidence of corrupt government officials and police.Ĭrime groups were being "notified of anticipated enforcement actions", the affidavit said. The special agent's affidavit, and the AFP's Kershaw, said criminals used the phones openly, often not even using code words and frequently sharing photos of massive drug consignments and details of how they would be transported.Īmong the images shared in the affidavit were mounds of blocks of illicit drugs and a diplomatic pouch identified in the court document as French and allegedly used to transport cocaine from Colombia. The FBI and other countries' law enforcers discovered that Italian organised crime, Asian triads, biker gangs and transnational drug syndicates were all users. A court order in late 2019, however, issued by an unspecified country where a server for the phones was located, gave the agency far greater and more timely access to their content. Among hundreds of arrests and tons of drugs seized, Australian authorities said they also disrupted 21 murder plots, including a mass killing, thanks to ANOM.īut, due to "technological issues", the FBI could not directly monitor the phones in Australia. ![]() Law enforcers had "an edge" that they had never had before, said Kershaw. Soon overseas criminals were flocking to use the ANOM phone. Business grew organically, by word-of-mouth. Seeing a "huge payday", they agreed, according to the affidavit.Īs the AFP monitored the messages and photos shared on the devices, "100% of ANOM users in the test phase used ANOM to engage in criminal activity", the affidavit said. The developer gave the distributors only 50 devices to sell. They settled on a soft launch in October 2018. Prodded by authorities, the developer-turned-informant tapped his trusted distributors, who targeted the Australian market. "As you know, some of the best ideas come over a couple of beers," said Australian Federal Police (AFP) commissioner Reece Kershaw on Tuesday. ![]() In 2018, Australian police investigators and analysts met with the FBI. The FBI decided it would launch its own, inserting a master key into the devices that attached to each message and enabled law enforcement officers to decrypt and store them as they were transmitted. Among many of the phones' features, content can be remotely wiped if they are seized.īut as one model was put out of business, new ones would enter the lucrative market. The source came on board after authorities dismantled the Phantom Secure encrypted smartphone network and arrested its CEO in 2018.įor at least a decade, organised crime groups have used phones like Phantom Secure to organise drug deals, hits on rivals and launder illicit earnings without detection, police say. The US court document - an affidavit from an FBI special agent first published by Vice News - says the "confidential human source", a former drug trafficker, had been creating a new hardened encrypted phone with a bespoke app called ANOM. More arrests and seizures are expected, it said.
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