Arrest of hundreds of Australians in what’s been dubbed the “sting of the century”

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

ok how about this....

If you purchase a new phone at a store, it comes packaged with paperwork, right? It comes with paperwork stating who/where the phone was manufactured. It will also state various features the phone may have, etc.. It also guarantees that it will be of a certain acceptable quality.

The paperwork with these phones, probably would've stated where the phones were manufactured, and what features the App actually had. It might even have F.B.I. printed right on it.

BUT Since these phones were not purchased through a legally binding transaction, they did not receive that paperwork. They did not know what the phone was actually designed to do.

Unfortunately for them, the phone did exactly what it was designed to do.

Caveat Emptor

Buyer Beware

Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) working together????
Where in the US are arrest being made.

Likely the phones would be classified illegal if there was no cell phone service provider.
Because the FBI and AFP were acting as the cell phone service provider and all the calls went through them.

This makes the tapping of these phones legal without a warrant because the phones were really not legal phones because they were AFP and FBI phones.

If the criminals are such morons to use these phones, it's their own fault they got caught.

a reply to: bellagirl

So the FBI made money on a crime app and let crimes happen and watched them real time? And this is applauded?

To me, there are a couple of really hilarious parts to the story-

The Australian man who was tricked into unmasking criminal associates is now a marked man with some of the world’s most dangerous people. Hakan Ayik had no idea what he was getting himself into.

The 42-year-old Australian drug kingpin with links to the Comanchero bikies and Asian triads thought he was doing a favour to criminal associates when he passed along an encrypted communications app.

What he did not know was that he had fallen head first into a trap set by Australian Federal Police officers and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Ayik had been handed a device from undercover agents who told him it was the perfect way to communicate with criminal associates and arrange drug imports without detection. Their conversations were untraceable, he was told.

Ayik, who was the first person given access to the app named AN0M, did what police had hoped he would do. He passed it on to every underworld figure he knew and provided police with access to 25 million messages regarding criminal plots.

On Tuesday, when news broke that police had carried out the southern hemisphere’s biggest ever crime bust, Ayik’s name was front and centre.

It will be whispered among networks around the world, authorities say, given the 42-year-old is the “principal distributor of the AN0M handset”.

AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said Ayik, who has been living in Turkey, was a marked man and should turn himself into authorities.

“Given the threat he faces, he’s best off handing himself into us as soon as he can,” Commissioner Kershaw said.

“He was one of the coordinators of this particular device, so he’s essentially set up his own colleagues.”

This bloke has been living the millionaire life overseas thinking he was untouchable.

Now he has not only police after him, but also his mates who are losing everything and seeing their 'millionaire' lifestyle and freedom go up in smoke.

Another interesting point is last night a criminal walked into a police station to hand himself in. He said he knows what they have on him so i think he thought go early and try cut a deal with police.

There is simply too many arrests and not enough police to do it in one day. Police have said they will be making arrests for weeks. They told all those who have used this phone to expect a knock on the door.

Another funny part to the story is those who were playing across different groups. Especially in the bikie space. Word is they are now in meltdown as their stories come out as they wont even be safe in gaol.

a reply to: bellagirl

On the ABC news article I read yesterday they mentioned one of the things being discussed on this app was a mass shooting in Australia, I believe at a Sydney cafe though did not go in to any further detail.

I find this interesting as it is not the domain of bikies, mafia types etc. but of terrorists. Seems in Sydney in the Lebanese And Arab communitIt’s there is a fine line between criminal groups and jihadi’s.

Encrochat was the 1 I remember from last year.
Mostly EU criminals were arrested.
The police broke the encryption and arrested 700+

a reply to: bellagirl

So basically the Crims have been working for the Government all along.

a reply to: bellagirl

According to NZ Police, there are currently arrests from this AN0M sting in NZ, too. In NZ they called it "Operation Spyglass". 37 search warrants executed resulting in the arrests of 35 people. Drugs, cash, weapons, and about $3.5 million in assets seized. Several criminal gangs involved.

Woo Hoo!

The pro-gang, soft-on-crime, criminals-deserve-respect New Zealand government will be GUTTED!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Another writeup from El Reg with more meat on the bones ...

www.theregister.com...

"The first three distributors for AN0M were based Down Under. As the Australian authorities were ahead of the FBI in getting a legal framework in place to snoop on these conversations, the Oz cops were first in examining the chatter — albeit just conversations involving users either in Australia or with a nexus to it. Presumably, the AN0M app was set up to send the messages to a server in Australia's jurisdiction."

a reply to: Nyiah

Yeah, it does.

Unless there's something in the small print that we're unaware of...it feels a lot like entrapment.

a reply to: Randyvine

It's a sting, so the had to get approval in advance.

originally posted by: seagull
a reply to: Nyiah

Yeah, it does.

Unless there's something in the small print that we're unaware of...it feels a lot like entrapment.

Entrapment is encouraging you to commit a crime, this is wire tapping.

originally posted by: seagull
a reply to: Nyiah

Yeah, it does.

Unless there's something in the small print that we're unaware of...it feels a lot like entrapment.

I think entrapment is often misrepresented. This is nothing like entrapment, which is:

"Entrapment is a practice in which a law enforcement agent or agent of the state induces a person to commit a "crime" that the person would have otherwise been unlikely or unwilling to commit"


Nobody has been induced to commit a crime, let alone one they wouldn't have committed. They just listened in to them planning crimes.

Care to be there's a large number of patriots and nationalists (those opposed to the NWO) mixed in their crowd of murderers and career criminals?

originally posted by: Nyiah
a reply to: BrokenCircles


Does this not smack of Entrapment to anyone else? Not that I mind nasties getting their dues in life, but this really seems sketchy AF from the legal end of it, at least from a US laws POV.


Also, that'll learn criminals, AND regular people alike, to trust tech so much. Fools. Luddite Life is starting to look real inviting, innit? /sarc-but-not-totally

Sure smells like it.

It’s almost like using Venmo to pay for sex with minors lol

Good job fbi!

originally posted by: bellagirl
Breaking news with worldwide implications

Operation Ironside was formed three years ago as a collaboration between the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to bring down underworld figures.

Operation Ironside began almost three years ago and is the Australian component of a long-term, international, covert investigation. The FBI and AFP targeted the dedicated encrypted communications platform, which was used exclusively by organised crime.

Basically, it all started over a couple of beers between FBI and Australia's AFP when a tech nerd suggested imagine if we created an app that encrypted phones for criminals ... but we could still see the contents.

So after a couple of months they created an app, loaded it onto phones and it became one of the most sought after tools for some of the biggest criminals in the world. Undercover officers started to distribute and then they all trusted this phone app once Australia's biggest drug lord who is hiding overseas in Turkey, distributed the phone to worldwide underworld figures. For four years they have recorded in real time all messages, calls, photos etc. Not one of them had any clue.

Yesterday the first arrests were made and its expected arrests are taking place all over the world with mafia, drug lords and bikie criminals all being taken down.

While they have not got the biggest drug lord hiding in Turkey, the police said they are not so worried as he has a world wide network of some of the worlds biggest criminals now getting arrested because of him.

To me the funniest part .... when they paid for the app, the money went to the police.

www.news.com.au... a
www.bbc.com...

awesome!! too bad Hunter Biden or HRC didn't get that app

a reply to: CthruU

All this, letting crime happen so as not to tip their hand.

Also, reports are they have caught police/govt doing criminal stuff too, and probably some who were in on this. Serious double-triple agents.

Bin Laden used couriers.