Hundreds of people in 18 countries arrested

[727Sky]

More than 800 suspected criminals have been arrested worldwide after being tricked into using an FBI-run encrypted messaging app, officials say.

The operation, jointly conceived by Australia and the FBI, saw devices with the ANOM app secretly distributed among criminals, allowing police to monitor their chats about drug smuggling, money laundering and even murder plots.
Officials called it a watershed moment.
Targets included drug gangs and people with links to the mafia.
Drugs, weapons, luxury vehicles and cash were also seized in the operation, which was conducted across more than a dozen countries. This included eight tons of cocaine, 250 guns and more than $48m (£34m) in various worldwide currencies and cryptocurrencies.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the operation had "struck a heavy blow against organised crime" around the world.
European Union police agency Europol described Operation Trojan Shield/Greenlight as the "biggest ever law enforcement operation against encrypted communication".
How did the ANOM sting work?
The FBI began operating its own encrypted device company called ANOM, and covertly distributed devices with the chat app among the criminal underworld via informants.
The idea for the operation came after two other encrypted platforms were taken down by law enforcement agencies, leaving criminal gangs in the market for new secure phones.
The devices were initially used by alleged senior crime figures, giving other criminals the confidence to use the platform.
"You had to know a criminal to get hold of one of these customised phones. The phones couldn't ring or email. You could only communicate with someone on the same platform," the Australian police explained.

Australian fugitive and alleged drug trafficker Hakan Ayik was key to the sting, having unwittingly recommended the app to criminal associates after being given a handset by undercover officers, police said.

Dubbed the "Facebook gangster" by Australian media outlets, Ayik is seen in social media photographs with large tattoos and a muscular physique. Local outlets say he has been living in Turkey since evading arrest, living a luxury lifestyle with a Dutch wife.
Police said he was "best off handing himself into us" as soon as possible, as he may be in danger himself, having unwittingly helped the FBI with their sting.
In total, some 12,000 encrypted devices were used by around 300 criminal syndicates in more than 100 countries.
What did the authorities uncover?
Officers were able to read millions of messages in "real time" describing murder plots, mass drug import plans and other schemes.
"All they talk about is drugs, violence, hits on each other, innocent people who are going to be murdered, a whole range of things," said Australian Federal Police commissioner Reece Kershaw.
In total, some 9,000 police officers around the world were involved in the sting.
Calvin Shivers of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division said the operation had enabled police agencies to "turn the tables on criminal organisations", with intelligence gathered preventing murders and a number of other crimes.
"We were actually able to see photographs of hundreds of tons of cocaine that were concealed in shipments of fruit," he said.
image copyrightAustralian Federal Police
Among the items seized was memorabilia from The Godfather
Statements from law enforcement agencies did not name any of those arrested in the sting.
In Australia, 224 people were arrested including members of outlaw motorcycle gangs, mafia groups, Asian crime syndicates, and serious and organised crime groups.
Police said they also seized three tonnes of drugs and A$45m (£25m; $35m) in cash and assets, and acted on 20 "threats to kill", potentially saving the lives of a "significant number of innocent bystanders".
Mr Morrison said the sting, which was called Operation Ironside, was "a watershed moment in Australian law enforcement history".
New Zealand police said 35 people in the country had been arrested, and about NZ$3.7m (£1.9m, $2.7m) of assets seized.
"We believe the termination of these operations will have a significant impact on New Zealand's organised crime scene," National Organised Crime Group Director Detective Superintendent Greg Williams said.
Europol's deputy executive director Jean-Philippe Lecouffe described the operation as an "exceptional success".
The agency did not break down the arrests in each country, but local officials said they included 70 people in Sweden and 49 in the Netherlands, according to Reuters news agency.
Linda Staaf, the Swedish police's head of intelligence, said the operation had prevented 10 murders, Reuters reported.
The FBI is expected to present more details later on Tuesday.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-57394831

[727Sky]

Hakan Ayik: The man who accidentally helped FBI get in criminals' pockets

Published

11 minutes ago

image copyrightFacebook
image captionSome Australian news outlets have referred to Hakan Ayik as the "Facebook gangster"
Law enforcement agencies have arrested some 800 suspected criminals around the world after thousands of people were tricked into using an encrypted phone app which allowed police to monitor their conversations without their knowledge.
Australian police have told local media that the man who unwittingly helped to distribute the FBI-run encrypted messaging app was a fugitive named Hakan Ayik.
Alleged to be a drugs kingpin himself, officials say Mr Ayik was identified as a key influencer and given access by undercover agents to a handset which he then recommended to other criminal associates.
"He was identified because of his standing within the underworld," a senior investigator quoted by the Australian Telegraph said. "He was a primary target as someone who was trusted and was going to be able to successfully distribute this platform."
It is reported that he has been living abroad in Turkey for years and police have urged him to come forward for his own safety.

• Hundreds arrested in massive global crime sting
  
• Qantas 'disturbed' by claims of gang infiltration
  

"Given the threat he faces, he's best off handing himself into us as soon as he can," Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said.
What is Ayik's background?
Also known as Joseph Hakan Ayik, the 42-year-old was born to Turkish migrant parents and is said to have grown up in a working class suburb of Sydney.
Referred to in Australian media as "the Facebook gangster", Mr Ayik featured in the national press about a decade ago for flashing his expensive lifestyle online amid a number of alleged links to gangs and drug networks.
He has been living outside of the country since he was identified as a prime suspect in a police operation involving alleged heroin trafficking. He was briefly arrested in Cyprus in 2010 but disappeared after being granted bail and has remained on Australia's Most Wanted lists since.
image copyrightNSW Police

Videos seen by Australian media at the time, reportedly showed him driving a $300,000 sports car wearing a diamond watch, playing music which made reference to his alleged criminal career.
Police say Mr Ayik has continued his illegal activity while living abroad, with a number of associates arrested in the intervening years since.
This week Australian media carried claims he was one of a group of major crime figures working together on an enterprise known as the "Aussie Cartel" - smuggling an estimated $1.5bn of drugs every year into the country.
A joint investigation by 60 Minutes Australia, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald tracked him down in Turkey where, they allege, he continues to lead a lavish lifestyle abroad investing his wealth into businesses and two homes in prestigious residential areas.
They said he has been living under the name Hakan Reis, having renounced his Australian citizenship, and has reportedly married a Dutch woman and had two children.
How was he involved in sting?
Police on Tuesday heralded a major operation which has exposed criminals linked to drug cartels and syndicates around the world.
A range of global law enforcement agencies collaborated on the investigation, with hundreds of arrests made by thousands of officers in a number of different nations.
media captionHundreds of people in 18 countries were detained
Australian officials say Mr Ayik unwittingly played a crucial role in their operation. Having been given a phone handset with the ANOM app on it by undercover agents, he then recommended the messaging service to other criminal associates.
There were reportedly some 12,000 encrypted devices circulating on the black market with the app pre-loaded and users required a code from an existing user to access, creating an element of trust.
"We have been in the back pockets of organised crime," police commissioner Kershaw said.
Officers say they were then able to read millions of messages in "real time" describing murder plots, mass drug import plans and other schemes.
image copyrightAustralian Federal Police
image captionOfficials said tonnes of drugs and millions of dollars in currency have been seized
Mr Ayik himself is not yet in custody but senior police officials say others busted by the software will now be aware he had "put them in this type of situation, exposed them to this''.
"If you look at Ayik and his involvement, essentially he's almost like the prime sponsor of ANOM among the criminal cartels and the criminal milieu,'' Australian Federal Police Superintendent Jared Taggart was quoted by the Australian Telegraph as saying.
"These devices exist almost everywhere … it's like a family tree, you could probably trace almost all devices back to him.''

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-57397779

[hounddoghowlie]

Hakan Ayik: The man who accidentally helped FBI get in criminals' pockets

Published

11 minutes ago

image copyrightFacebook
image captionSome Australian news outlets have referred to Hakan Ayik as the "Facebook gangster"
Law enforcement agencies have arrested some 800 suspected criminals around the world after thousands of people were tricked into using an encrypted phone app which allowed police to monitor their conversations without their knowledge.
Australian police have told local media that the man who unwittingly helped to distribute the FBI-run encrypted messaging app was a fugitive named Hakan Ayik.
Alleged to be a drugs kingpin himself, officials say Mr Ayik was identified as a key influencer and given access by undercover agents to a handset which he then recommended to other criminal associates.
"He was identified because of his standing within the underworld," a senior investigator quoted by the Australian Telegraph said. "He was a primary target as someone who was trusted and was going to be able to successfully distribute this platform."
It is reported that he has been living abroad in Turkey for years and police have urged him to come forward for his own safety.

• Hundreds arrested in massive global crime sting
  
• Qantas 'disturbed' by claims of gang infiltration
  

"Given the threat he faces, he's best off handing himself into us as soon as he can," Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said.
What is Ayik's background?
Also known as Joseph Hakan Ayik, the 42-year-old was born to Turkish migrant parents and is said to have grown up in a working class suburb of Sydney.
Referred to in Australian media as "the Facebook gangster", Mr Ayik featured in the national press about a decade ago for flashing his expensive lifestyle online amid a number of alleged links to gangs and drug networks.
He has been living outside of the country since he was identified as a prime suspect in a police operation involving alleged heroin trafficking. He was briefly arrested in Cyprus in 2010 but disappeared after being granted bail and has remained on Australia's Most Wanted lists since.
image copyrightNSW Police

Videos seen by Australian media at the time, reportedly showed him driving a $300,000 sports car wearing a diamond watch, playing music which made reference to his alleged criminal career.
Police say Mr Ayik has continued his illegal activity while living abroad, with a number of associates arrested in the intervening years since.
This week Australian media carried claims he was one of a group of major crime figures working together on an enterprise known as the "Aussie Cartel" - smuggling an estimated $1.5bn of drugs every year into the country.
A joint investigation by 60 Minutes Australia, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald tracked him down in Turkey where, they allege, he continues to lead a lavish lifestyle abroad investing his wealth into businesses and two homes in prestigious residential areas.
They said he has been living under the name Hakan Reis, having renounced his Australian citizenship, and has reportedly married a Dutch woman and had two children.
How was he involved in sting?
Police on Tuesday heralded a major operation which has exposed criminals linked to drug cartels and syndicates around the world.
A range of global law enforcement agencies collaborated on the investigation, with hundreds of arrests made by thousands of officers in a number of different nations.
media captionHundreds of people in 18 countries were detained
Australian officials say Mr Ayik unwittingly played a crucial role in their operation. Having been given a phone handset with the ANOM app on it by undercover agents, he then recommended the messaging service to other criminal associates.
There were reportedly some 12,000 encrypted devices circulating on the black market with the app pre-loaded and users required a code from an existing user to access, creating an element of trust.
"We have been in the back pockets of organised crime," police commissioner Kershaw said.
Officers say they were then able to read millions of messages in "real time" describing murder plots, mass drug import plans and other schemes.
image copyrightAustralian Federal Police
image captionOfficials said tonnes of drugs and millions of dollars in currency have been seized
Mr Ayik himself is not yet in custody but senior police officials say others busted by the software will now be aware he had "put them in this type of situation, exposed them to this''.
"If you look at Ayik and his involvement, essentially he's almost like the prime sponsor of ANOM among the criminal cartels and the criminal milieu,'' Australian Federal Police Superintendent Jared Taggart was quoted by the Australian Telegraph as saying.
"These devices exist almost everywhere … it's like a family tree, you could probably trace almost all devices back to him.''

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-57397779

you would think idiots would know better than to be using phones to conduct illegal business. there's always somebody watching and listening. and sooner or later someone be them crooks or law enforcement is gonna figure out a way to hack that shit or place wire taps on it.

as for the dummy that got his cohorts to use the shit, he's a dead man for sure. whether he turns himself in or not.

[BIAD]

Here's a link to a similar thread about the worldwide clean-up.

Qantas & Drug Raids.

Sky's article shows how engrained the use of cell-phones and the internet is today's generations.
I mean, when you specialise in gun and drug, these tracked and recorded means of communication
is not the best way to avoid detection!

[Mystic Wanderer]

It's good to see that we still have laws being enforced in other countries where police have a backbone and are still allowed to do their jobs. 

I bet Hunter is crying right now looking at all that cocaine that got seized. But, then again, if our FBI was involved, they may have put some back for him.   

[ABNARTY]

I wonder why they are touting how they did it? Wouldn't you want to keep that under wraps?

[Ninurta]

I wonder why they are touting how they did it? Wouldn't you want to keep that under wraps?

It makes laymen wary of using encryption. You just never know who is really running it, and laymen do not know what to look for to insure encrypted systems are actually secure and not backdoored. There are ways, things to look for and things to avoid, "Big Red Flags" one might say, but I'm not going to go into them here.

Fewer people using encryption, and especially not effective encryption, make the snooping on the populace much, MUCH easier. So they are trying to generate a fear of encryption to make their own jobs easier.

A side effect of releasing this information to the public is that it is a tip-off that they already have deeper things in motion, so they can afford to let this particular cat out of the bag to instill fear.

.

[ABNARTY]

I wonder why they are touting how they did it? Wouldn't you want to keep that under wraps?

It makes laymen wary of using encryption. You just never know who is really running it, and laymen do not know what to look for to insure encrypted systems are actually secure and not backdoored. There are ways, things to look for and things to avoid, "Big Red Flags" one might say, but I'm not going to go into them here.

Fewer people using encryption, and especially not effective encryption, make the snooping on the populace much, MUCH easier. So they are trying to generate a fear of encryption to make their own jobs easier.

A side effect of releasing this information to the public is that it is a tip-off that they already have deeper things in motion, so they can afford to let this particular cat out of the bag to instill fear.

.

You bring up a good point. You never know who is running your particular product. Could land you in some hot water. But then again if you are running drugs, child trafficking, or stolen weapons maybe you need to be in hot water.

[Ninurta]

You bring up a good point. You never know who is running your particular product. Could land you in some hot water. But then again if you are running drugs, child trafficking, or stolen weapons maybe you need to be in hot water.

From a purely personal perspective, I don't believe ANY drugs should be illegal - it's none of my business how someone else decides to destroy himself, and it would improve the species by culling the weak. Child traffickers should be shot on sight. They ought to have an open season on them year round, and a high bag limit so that everyone could assist in their eradication. That would improve the species, too. I've never caught the government doing much at all about stolen weapons, except in one case, and even then the thieves returned the weapons because a private citizen was hunting them down with blood in his eye and a take no prisoners attitude - the government didn't have much to do with it at all, and really wasn't any help.

The bottom line of encryption, though, is that the algorithms don't care who is using them, or what for. They can be used either for good or evil, and so they will be. It appears, however, that criminals don't have the time to put in to researching them, what with all that crime they have to do and all. So they get their asses caught in the cracks, and I'm ok with that.

Like guns, the Powers That Be don't even attempt to take them, or encryption, out of the hands of only criminals. They instead target law abiding citizens, because it's not just the criminals they want to spy on. As a matter of fact, and again like guns, criminals are not going to care what laws they pass. Criminals ignore law. That's kinda sorta what makes them criminals.

So when Comey was pushing to ban encryption in America, the law abiding were up in arms, and the criminals were saying "Really? So what? How in the hell does another law I'm gonna ignore impact ME, exactly?"

So, since Comey failed in that attempt, they have to install fear of encryption in the law abiding, because no one can police a person like he can police himself. All this is going to do for criminals is cause them to hire folks to vet the encryption system for them before they use it. The law abiding don't have those kind of resources, so they have to vet it out for themselves, if they have the time or know-how, and most folks don't.

So anti-encryption fear will work to government advantage, and still not really affect the criminal element.

Take this operation for example - the governments busted 800 people worldwide out of... how many? They claim to have put 12,000 of these phones out there, and still only caught 800? I bet most or all of those 800 were pretty low level, too, and the bosses got off scott free. They seized 8 tons of cocaine, but claim to have video of "hundreds of tons of cocaine being smuggled in fruit shipments"? 8 tons seized out of hundreds of tons known? Seized 250 guns? 800 people, but only 250 guns? Even when we consider they KNEW of "hundreds of tons", and all of those had to be guarded by men with guns? They still only got 250 guns?

Frankly, I have doubts that this was about the criminal drug smuggling element at all. Seems that if it was, it might have been a smidge more successful.

.

[727Sky]

Just one way how the reverse Opium wars are conducted all over the world..

[guohua]

Just one way how the reverse Opium wars are conducted all over the world..

Yes, that would be the Triad (Mafia) in China actually the Largest and most Brutal Organized Crime Syndicate in the World. 
Triad societies originated in 17th century China when the Hung Mun came together in an attempt to overthrow the Qing dynasty in an unsuccessful bid to restore the Ming dynasty.

Once controlled by 12 Families, the Triad is made up of many Crime Syndicate Families today I think, but I know when I left the MSS there was around 1.5 million in the 2000's. New members are often recruited among the 120-million-strong migrant workers known as the Floating Population.

The Triad symbol
I had to remember the facts about the release of Hong Kong to China.
I could not remember all the details so I found this article for you.
This may Help YOU to understand just how Large and Dangerous and Disruptive the Triad is and how the CCP needed the Triads Help and Assurances.

Triads and Communists
 Many leaders in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan are believed to have met with representatives of the Triads and received some help from them. Referring to the Triads, Deng Xiaoping once said, "there are many good guys among them. "Before the handover, Beijing officials reportedly met with the Triad heads and said they wanted a "peaceful transition."

Triad leaders met with Communist officials before the singing of the 1984 Hong Kong handover agreement.
In return for assisting the Communist in a smooth transition, the Triad leaders were told that Communism would turn a blind eye to its illegal activities.
Beijing especially wanted the support of the powerful Sun Yee On gang traditionally had ties with the nationalist in Taiwan

The Triads also played a crucial rile in Operation Yellowbird, a network that help smuggle pro-democracy dissidents out of China after Tiananmen Square in 1989.
No is sure whether the Triads were involved in the operation simply for the money or out of concern for the pro-democracy movement.
Link