Gardaí have said they seized 42 ‘Ghost’ encrypted devices as part of an international investigation, which infiltrated an encrypted messaging platform for criminals.
They have seized over €15m 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.
The system was infiltrated as part of a joint operation, ‘Operation Kraken’, by the FBI, the Australian Federal Police, the Canadian Mounted Police, the French National Gendarmerie and An Garda Síochána.
Authorities in Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden were also involved.
A major criminal investigation has been under way since the encrypted messaging system known as “Ghost” that was used solely by criminals to communicate was infiltrated.
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.
A drug lab was dismantled in Australia and weapons, drugs and over €1m in cash was seized globally so far.
The head of the Garda Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, Assistant Commissioner Justin Kelly, said there will be further arrests.
Asst Comm Kelly said Ireland had the second largest user base of the encrypted platform and the success of Operation Kraken is of particular significance.
He added that a number of the suspect handsets had been seized, a primary drugs trafficking route into Ireland has been dismantled, and four Irish organised groups involved in drugs trafficking were tackled as part of the operation.
In addition, drugs with a street value of €16m were seized, he said.
He said the primary organised crime groups operating in Ireland are transnational in nature and some of them purposely base themselves abroad to evade Irish law enforcement.
This means a coordinated international response is vital, he said.
He added that An Garda Síochána would continue to use every opportunity, technology and resource at its disposal to tackle organised crime gangs causing harm to Irish society.
Ghost system dismantled, say gardaí
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 1,000 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.
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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, €900m 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 Court.