By Operation Ironside has targeted a major network of organized crime, drug trafficking, murder plots and the illegal arms market
Australian and New Zealand Police announced on Tuesday 8 June the arrest of more than 250 people linked to drug trafficking and other crimes as part of the international operation known as “Ironside”.
For three years these people were trafficking illicit drugs on an industrial scale. Australian police chief Reece Kershaw told a press conference this morning in Australia that “the alleged criminals are members of motorbike gangs, the Australian Mafia, Asian crime syndicates and serious and organized crime groups”.
The police officers were able to obtain evidence through an encrypted application, which allowed them to develop the entire operation.
This application, known as ANoM, was supposed to be an absolutely private and impenetrable communication tool in cyberspace, with a view to plan criminal activities between the criminal gangs. For 3 years the Australian Federal Police, together with the FBI monitored conversations between criminal groups, according to the police statement, agents were reading clandestine communications since 2018 on the ANoM application, which can only be accessed through a prepared digital system. This app could be found inside mobile phones bought on illegal markets, and were configured not to be able to receive calls or send emails. They were only operative by messaging into another mobile phone that had ANoM installed, which is how the communication network worked. “The devices circulated organically and grew in popularity among criminals, who trusted the app’s legitimacy because high-profile organized crime figures vouched for its integrity,” said the police statement.
Operation Ironside arrested 224 suspects on 500 criminal charges, seized 3.7 tons of drugs and some $35 million in cash.
Several of the defendants were active members of the Australian-based Italian mafia, motorbike gangs, Indochinese cartels and criminal networks in Albania. The arrests came after police intelligence officers gained access to the app, which had previously anticipated two planned criminal operations, a mass shooting in a suburban Australian cafe and the murder of a family of five. The criminals did not use pseudonyms within the app, and also discussed among themselves how they should carry out the attacks and what role each of the members should assume, confident that their communications would be completely secure.
The arrests and drugs seized overseas were made in collaboration between New Zealand and Australian police, as well as Europol and the FBI.
It is not yet known exactly where all the illegal goods were seized, the operations involved approximately 9,000 police officers from 16 countries who were aware of the operation, and police expect more arrests to be made in the coming days.
Source: Officials
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