The European Criminal Police Agency announced on June 8 (local time) that it had arrested 800 criminals using Anom, a fake cryptographic communication network developed and operated by the FBI.
Anom, an encryption communication service used in the Japanese raid this time, was operated secretly for the FBI’s year-long entrapment investigation. Using the records of the communication of the 12,000 devices that make up the Anom and the 27 million messages sent over the network as clues, investigative agencies in 17 countries, including Europe, the United States, and Oceania, launched a large-scale joint enforcement operation (Operation Greenlight / Trojan Shield). ) was performed.
Through this discovery operation, more than 700 house investigations were conducted, 800 people were arrested, 8 tons of cocaine, 22 tons of cannabis and hemp resin, 2 tons of synthetic drugs such as amphetamines, 6 tons of synthetic drugs, 55 luxury cars, 250 guns, etc. $48 million in cash and crypto assets were confiscated.
According to reports, Anom is a predecessor to Phantom Secure, a cryptographic device network service used by drug gangs. When the FBI confiscated Phantom Secure in 2018, it is said that the anonymous human source CHS (confidential human source), who had been developing Phantom Secure until then, was developing ANOME, the next-generation encryption device of Phantom Secure.
The FBI and the Australian Federal Police, who were offered Anam in exchange for a reduced sentence, developed a cell phone in Anom and secretly distributed it on the black market. The phone for Anom was said to have removed all normal functions and only had the ability to send encrypted messages and photos disguised as a calculator app. Criminal organizations around the world who were looking for an alternative to Phantom Secure all used ANOM, but in the case of ANOM encrypted communication, the investigative authorities knew the master key to decrypt the contents, and accordingly, messages and photos exchanged by knowing the owner of the device were also leaked to the investigation agency. .
Criminal gangs using Anom were initially concentrated in Australia, but word of mouth infiltrated Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Serbia, and eventually became used by 300 criminal gangs operating in 90 countries around the world. Like Phantom Secure, Sky Global, an encrypted messaging service used for criminals, was shut down by law enforcement in early 2021, but use of Anom has expanded rapidly.
The FBI said in a statement that criminal syndicates using cryptographic communications to avoid law enforcement’s eyes will no longer be able to stretch out and sleep, but criminals around the world believe that their platforms are in fact run by the FBI or other law enforcement agencies. He said he was hoping to be caught up in the fear that it might happen. The European Police Agency also said that this operation is an exceptional feat accomplished by task forces such as the United States, Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand, and it is happy to support these activities to highlight the strengths of various investigative agencies and to strengthen ties. Related information can be found here.