Australian Federal Police and FBI nab criminal underworld figures in worldwide sting using encrypted app
More than 100 members of Australia's mafia and bikie underworld have been arrested in the nation's largest ever crime sting.
As part of a three-year collaboration between the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), underworld figures were tricked into communicating via an encrypted app that had been designed by police.
The app, known as AN0M, was used by organised crime gangs around the world to plan executions, mass drug importations and money laundering.
The sting, known as Operation Ironside, has exposed criminals linked to South American drug cartels, Asian Triads and Middle Eastern and European criminal syndicates.
The plan to use an encrypted app was hatched overseas over a few beers with FBI agents in 2018, before police figured out how to decrypt all messages.
The app was unwittingly distributed by fugitive Australian drug trafficker Hakan Ayik, after he was given the device by undercover agents.
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