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At least 250 people have been arrested worldwide in an international police operation that used “Trojan horse” technology to target drug traffickers, mafias and other organized crime organizations.
Australian police said on Tuesday they had interrupted 21 murder plots and confiscated 3.7 tonnes of drugs during the operation, which covertly monitored an encrypted communications platform used by criminal gangs.
The FBI in the U.S. accessed the AN0M platform, which allowed Australian police to monitor more than 25 million messages sent in real time. According to investigators, the communications detailed murder plots, drug smuggling and other illegal activities, at a joint press conference that detailed the three-year police operation.
Police said 9,000 officers had been involved in coordinated raids in several countries and that there had been 224 arrests in Australia and 35 in New Zealand. Details of police operations in Germany, the United States and other countries will be released later Tuesday.
Scott Morrison, the Australian Prime Minister, said the international operation was a major step forward in law enforcement.
“The Australian government, as part of a global operation, has dealt a heavy blow against organized crime, not only in this country, but will echo around organized crime around the world,” he said.
The police operation involved the most recent use of technologies such as spyware and Trojan horse software during investigations by police authorities of organized criminals and terrorist organizations.
The AN0M app was installed on mobile phones that had no other capabilities. The phones, which were bought on the black market, could not make calls or send emails. They could only send messages to another device that had the organized crime app in place, Australian police said in a statement.
The devices circulated organically and increased in popularity among criminals, who relied on the security of the app because high-profile organized crime figures endorsed its integrity, police said.
Greg Barton, a counter-terrorism expert at Deakin University in Melbourne, said deploying Trojan horse software on modified phones was a shining example of using social engineering to fight organized crime.
“Australian police authorities and their counterparts around the world will have gathered more information about the operation of organized criminals and have disrupted their operations for a period of time,” he said.
“They are important temporary victories in endless cat and mouse battles with criminals.”
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