Global criminal elites hit by 'unprecedented' AN0M sting with Canadian roots
'The supreme irony here is that the very devices that these criminals were using to hide from law enforcement were actually beacons for law enforcement'
An international police team have pulled off one of the world’s most sophisticated and expansive penetrations of the upper echelons of the criminal underworld, using criminal influencers to lure mobsters, narcos, bikers, gangsters and corrupt cops into using a supposedly secret encrypted phone system — which was really run by the FBI.
About 1,000 people have been arrested worldwide, tons of drugs, hundreds of guns and tens of millions of dollars in cash and assets were seized, and multiple murders averted, authorities said.
There was a Canadian component, but while police in the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden crowed about the wild success of the innovative three-year honeypot sting, the RCMP would not say what the Canadian content was.
Arrests and seizures started Monday in Australia and New Zealand and announcements revealing the remarkable operation rolled across Europe and into the United States Tuesday.
