The FBI began planning a sophisticated sting that led to the arrests of 800 suspected organised criminals in raids around the world three years ago. Police this week carried out hundreds of searches, seized drugs, fire-arms, luxury vehicles and cash in co-ordinated operation across multiple countries. The targets were organised crime groups who had placed their trust in an encrypted phone application called An0m to arrange drug deals, kidnappings, and assassinations. An informer working for the FBI sold An0m Android phones on the black market claiming it offered users highly secure encrypted messaging services. More than 9,000 encrypted devices were in circulation by the time law enforcement agencies pulled the plug on the network on 7 June 2021.
Mafia, bikies and criminal gangs were in ruins after police launched their “sting of the century” – but it would’ve been impossible without one hacker.
Criminal gangs that used a secure-messaging app called ANOM unwittingly allowed the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to eavesdrop on their conversations.
09 June 2021, 04:06 pm
FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) confirmed that it was able to arrest the sellers of Anom encrypted devices, offering these phones to various crime groups.
(Photo : Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
The FBI seal is on display during a conference with Attorney General John Ashcroft June 21, 2001 in Washington, DC. Ashcroft announced the indictments of 13 Saudis and one Lebanese in connection with the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing that killed 19 American servicemen in Saudi Arabia.
If you don t know what an Anom mobile phone is, it s a device that can provide users total secrecy when it comes to communications. This means that if you send someone a text message or give them a call, no one will ever know your conversation.