Thousands of mobsters, bikers, gangsters, narcos, money launderers and corrupt cops were lured into using AN0M (aka Anom) a supposedly secret encrypted phone system, which was secretly being run by the FBI. Let me tell you about it.
The Mob Reporter here with news of 1,000 arrests and even more raids seizing drugs, guns, money and luxury goods as the *real* secret behind an underworld communication system unrolled this week in the United States, across Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
It was called AN0M, the next generation in secure communication that was unwittingly pushed into gangland by criminal influencers who made the new system trusted and trendy in the underworld as part of an ingenious and technologically innovative honeypot sting.
What this is about is the increasing underworld use of hardened encrypted devices for secret communications. These are special phones that encrypt messages before sending them to another secure phone where they are decoded and read. While they are in transit, they can’t be intercepted and unscrambled.
Gangsters have been widely using such technology for a few years now and some companies have tried to profit from the demand by creating special phone devices. One of the first was called Phantom Secure, a Canadian company. Recently I told you about EncroChat, which was a gangland hit until it was hacked by the French. Then came Sky ECC by Sky Global, another Canadian firm that was taken down in March by the FBI.
Along the way a new competitor was in development, called AN0M.
When one of those working to build AN0M was facing charges on other matters, he made authorities an offer they couldn’t refuse. He turned the project over to the FBI. Technically savvy investigators with the Australian Federal Police helped rejig the platform to allow investigators to gather, track, decrypt and store every messages. The phones looked like normal smart phones but AN0M’s features were hidden behind a calculator app, where punching in a numeric code unlocked it.
The FBI’s cooperating source then recruited three of his clients as administrators, a Turk, an Australian and a Swede. One of them, the Turkish man who grew up in Australia was particularly successful, authorities allege. His name is Hakan Ayik, a 42 year old previously dubbed “the Facebook gangster” because of his social media posts highlighting his flashy lifestyle, travels, muscles and tattoos. He and a handful of others also became brand ambassadors for AN0M. They unwittingly reached out to clients who had established reputations and criminal ties, which authorities say included outlaw bikers, Italian Mafia, drug lords and other gangsters and members of transnational crime groups.
There were about 12,000 AN0M devices in use, sending 27 million messages through 100 countries in 45 languages. The top five countries for AN0M use were Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, and Serbia.
The covert operation wrapped up this week. On June 7 and 8, agencies around the world delighted in making the big reveal as waves of arrests and raids began in at least 16 countries. In the United States, it was called Operation Trojan Shield. There’s been more than a thousand arrests by my last tally. What did police find among the enormous haul after smashing down a thousand doors? Movie collectibles for The Godfather and a poster for Breaking Bad.
In Australia, they call it Operation Ironside and the underworld damage was particularly hard. Among those arrested is a defence lawyer, allegedly linked to the Comanchero Motorcycle Club, accused of conspiring to obstruct the course of justice.
Comanchero MC members are prominent as targets in the AN0M sweeps. Other biker club members arrested are with the Rebels MC, Lone Wolf MC and Bandidos MC.
Europol, the police agency of the European Union, called their part of the case OTF Greenlight, and involved authorities in Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Britain, Spain, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania and Norway.
World - MR.
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