Recently, the FBI with the Australian Federal Police (AFP), and several other law enforcement agencies from Europe have done one of the biggest international cybercrime operations in which they have arrested 800 cybercriminals against encrypted communication.
All these law enforcement agencies have been able to successfully execute this operation due to the encrypted device company, called ANOM. And this company is strategically developed and covertly operated by these law enforcement agencies itself to eavesdrop on crooks.
According to the Europol report, ANOM served more than 12,000 encrypted devices to more than 300 criminal organizations that are suspected of operating their illegal activities in more than 100 countries.
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Joint Activities Executed
With the help of Operation Ironside by AFP, Trojan Shield by the FBI, and Europol has carried out this giant operation in 16 countries, and in this joint operation they executed the following key activities:-
- 700+ house searches.
- 800+ arrests.
- Seizure of 8+ tons of cocaine.
- Seizure of 22 tons of cannabis & cannabis resin.
- Seizure of 2 tons of amphetamine & methamphetamine.
- Seizure of 6 tons of synthetic drug precursors.
- Seizure of 250 firearms.
- Seizure of 55 luxury vehicles.
- Seizure of over $48 million in various worldwide currencies and cryptocurrencies.
Criminals Highly Demand Encrypted Communication Platforms
The law enforcement agencies and Europol have emphasized that to facilitate illegal activities the criminal organizations and independent criminals always demand encrypted communication platforms, and it’s a volatile market.
Apart from this, in July last year, an international operation made it possible to destroy the EncroChat platform. The FBI and DEA, together with other police forces have obtained 27 million messages and analyzed them for 18 months.
Here, during their investigation they found several key pieces of evidence like the discussed chats of the criminals where they discussed their criminal activities, believing that their messages were encrypted.
Moreover, in Australia alone, more than 525 police searches were executed across the country in which six clandestine laboratories have been shut down and arrested 224 suspected criminals.
Not only that even the Law enforcement agencies from Sweden to New Zealand have expressed that these operations have dropped a significant impact on cybercrime organizations around the globe.
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