Posted by The infiltration of an encrypted communication tool used for criminal activities worldwide has led to the seizure of €15m worth of cocaine and 11 arrests in Ireland.
The platform, known as Ghost, was used to facilitate criminal activity including drug trafficking, money laundering and instances of extreme violence, authorities said.Gardaí say they have seized 42 ‘Ghost’ encrypted devices as part of the international investigation, which infiltrated an encrypted messaging platform for criminals.
They have seized over €15 million worth of cocaine, cannabis and heroin and arrested 11 people.
A total of €350,000 in cash along with crypto currency and over 150 electronic devices were also recovered.
Gardaí have been targeting four main criminal gangs following the dismantling of the network, which they say was established to facilitate serious and organised crime.This enabled gardaí to target four criminal gangs in Ireland involved in drug trafficking and money laundering.
A total of 33 searches were carried out by 300 gardaí, with 27 premises searched last Monday as part of a coordinated international day of action, which also recovered two crypto currency keys, 27 laptops, 126 other mobile devices, 200 SIM cards, six Rolex watches and a 2021 Range Rover Jeep.
Further arrests likely
A total of 51 people have been arrested in four countries.Ghost dismantled
Gardaí say the Ghost system has been successfully dismantled.
It was used for a wide range of criminal activities including large scale drug trafficking, money laundering, and extreme violence including homicides as well as other forms of serious and organised crime.
Users could purchase Ghost without any personal information. It used three encryption standards and offered the option to send a message followed by a specific code which would then self-destruct all messages on the target phone.
This allowed the criminal gangs and gang members to communicate securely, evade detection, counter forensic measures and coordinate cross border illegal operations.
Around a thousand messages were exchanged each day on Ghost with several thousand users.
Representatives from Europol, the Australian Federal Police and the FBI were also in Ireland in support of the ongoing operation.
In 2020, a joint international French and Dutch investigation team dismantled the encrypted tool ‘Encrochat’ which had been used widely by organised crime groups.
This has so far led to 6,558 arrests worldwide, 197 described as “high value targets”.
In addition, €900 million in criminal assets have been seized or frozen; 163 tonnes of cannabis, 103 tonnes of cocaine and 3.3 tonnes of heroin have been seized along with 971 vehicles, 271 estates or homes, 923 weapons, 21,750 rounds of ammunition, 68 explosives, 83 boats and 40 planes.
The infiltration of Encrochat has also been used to target senior figures of the Kinahan organised crime group in Ireland and abroad, and several gang members have been jailed by the Special Criminal Cou
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