Global sting nets hundreds of criminals tricked into using FBI-run app

The ANOM app was part of a worldwide sting called Operation Trojan Shield, led by the FBI and involved the US Drug Enforcement Administration, Europol and law enforcement agencies in more than a dozen countries. A global sting involving an encrypted communications platform developed by the FBI has sparked raids and arrests around the world, delivering “an unprecedented blow” to crime gangs. Police arrested more than 800 people worldwide in a huge global sting involving encrypted phones that were secretly planted by the FBI. Officers were able to read the messages of global underworld figures in around 100 countries as they plotted drug deals, arms transfers and gangland hits on the compromised ANOM devices, law enforcement agencies said on Tuesday. Operation Trojan Shield involved police swoops in 16 nations. The operation was led by the FBI but also involved the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the European Union police agency Europol and law enforcement agencies in more than a dozen countries. More than 32 tonnes of drugs – cocaine, cannabis, amphetamines and methamphetamines – were seized along with 250 firearms, 55 luxury cars and more than $148 million in cash and cryptocurrencies, Europol said. “The results are staggering,” FBI Assistant Director Calvin Shivers told reporters at Europol’s HQ in The Netherlands. He said the FBI had provided criminal syndicates in over 100 countries with the devices over the last 18 months “that allowed us to monitor their communications.” “This information led over the last week to hundreds of law enforcement operations on a global scale from New Zealand to Australia to Europe and the USA, with impressive results,” Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, Deputy Director Operations at Europol said at the press conference. It was, said Australian Federal Police Commander Jennifer Hearst, “a watershed moment in global law enforcement history.”