World exclusive: Australia’s underworld was shattered by an ingenious police trick that led the mafia, bikers and global gang heavyweights to deliver their plans straight into the hands of detectives.
In a daring three year operation, Australian federal agents secretly monitored an FBI-powered Trojan horse app used by organized crime gangs to plot executions, bulk drug imports, industrial-scale money laundering and gun possession.
Little did they know that the Australian Federal Police could read their messages as they were broadcast.
Police will claim that senior Australian mafia figures, feared Bikes and members associated with South American drug cartels, Asian triads and criminal syndicates from the Middle East and Europe were exposed by the stab – the largest in Australian history.
Police say they foiled 21 murder plans while billions of dollars in drug trafficking to Australia, money laundering and gun possession were all exposed through the covert operation.
In the southern hemisphere’s biggest hit against organized crime, more than 100 people were charged, 3,366 kg of drugs and $ 35.8 million in cash were confiscated, 72 firearms were confiscated and 1,650 devices with the encrypted app Operation Ironside were broken into.
Those numbers are expected to rise dramatically, with the operation culminating this week with 4,000 police raids across Australia.
Among those detained was Emmanuel Vamvoukakis, the 40-year-old sergeant-at-arms on the south coast of NSW Comanchero, who was arrested in a dramatic early morning raid that blew the front door of his home.
In scenes repeated across the country on Monday, other high-ranking bikes as well as suspected drug importers were arrested.
« Today Australia is a much safer country because of the extraordinary outcome of Operation Ironside, » said AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw.
« It underscores how extremely effective the AFP is when it works with local and global partners and moves its fight against transnational organized crime abroad, » he said.
AN0M users were raided overnight worldwide, including the US, UK, Germany and the Netherlands, while heavily armed tactical police officers from across Australia and New Zealand carried out 336 search warrants in all mainland states in Australia.
In an operation worthy of a Hollywood script, the police broke the nation’s criminal underworld wide after intercepting, decrypting, and reading 25 million messages sent on the AN0M devices.
A humble AFP tech guru who concocted the plan over a few beers with FBI agents in 2018 was working out how to crack the encrypted messages on the couch in the living room of his Canberra house a few months later.
The Australian Federal Police then placed the devices with the preinstalled AN0M in the hands of criminals by using several important criminal « influencers » – the Australian mafia man and the Sydney refugee Hakan Ayik, who was hiding in Turkey.
According to police, Ayik and Mafia Man convinced their employees to use the devices, a move that gave police real-time access to every message, photo or voice message sent.
More than 11,000 people, including 1,650 in Australia, used AN0M devices unaware that the Australian Federal Police were overhearing every murder, drug import and crime they discussed.
« These criminal influencers have pocketed hundreds of suspected perpetrators of the AFP, » said Kershaw.
« Essentially, they handcuffed each other by advocating, trusting, and communicating about AN0M without realizing that we were watching the whole time. »
Detective Superintendent Des Appleby, a 30-year veteran with the Australian Federal Police, said the climax of Operation Ironside was « the greatest thing I’ve ever seen. »
Detective Superintendent Appleby said it would be « breathtaking » for the underworld to find out that the police had been secretly listening to their deepest secrets for nearly three years.
« I think you will be deeply shocked that you have been served so badly. All of your thoughts and plans, plans and they are all in the hands of the police. »
■ Previously untouchable personalities of the underworld and drug lords were ensnared by AN0M, who provided the police with valuable information about their activities.
■ Bikie gangs and criminal syndicates who claimed to be enemies of the state did secret side business behind the scenes and made fun of their pledges of loyalty and fraternity.
■ Outlaw motorcycle gangs Comanchero and Lone Wolf were hit hard and dozens of members and staff arrested.
■ The bold idea for law enforcement agencies to stick an encrypted device into the underworld came about over a couple of beers when two AFP agents overseas met with FBI officials in early 2018.
■ Operation Ironside’s legacy will be felt for years to come. Police are now working on hundreds of criminal complaints, seizing tens of millions of dollars in assets and warning those who used the devices that they might expect a knock on the door.
■ The investigation began with three AFP agents working in a windowless office, but has grown so extensive in recent weeks that AFP has shut down much of its business other than child protection and counterterrorism.
« There are hundreds of investigators across the country, AFP, state and federal police (police), the Australian Criminal Police Department, tremendous surveillance resources and all of the support areas involved, » he said. « Thousands of people are involved in the breakup. »
He said the key to its success was having access to communications that the criminals believed were safe and inaccessible to law enforcement agencies.
« These people coordinate drug deliveries, murders, attacks on people, money laundering, and they do this in an industrial capacity, it’s just huge, » he said.
« AFP has been interested in encrypted platforms for 14 years and is therefore working very hard to get to the point where we can actually do things like this. »
Kirsty Schofield, the commander of the AFP investigation in NSW, said Operation Ironside showed the sheer volume of illicit drugs being smuggled into the country was « staggering » and NSW was at the center of it, with more than half of that Shameful activity in Australia was revealed to AN0M occurring in this state.
« We are definitely Ironside’s Ground Zero. It has really become clear that the preferred place to drop drugs in Australia is in New South Wales, » said Commander Schofield.
Police identified 650 targets involved in NSW crime through Operation Ironside alone and carried out a staggering 210 search warrants in 85 homes and businesses.
The underworld disruption was « groundbreaking » and the information gleaned from the news had given police unprecedented insight into how the underworld and the people involved, she said.
Detective Superintendent Appleby said those who sprayed the AN0M devices did not know they were being checked by police officers.
« That’s the cunning of what we’ve done. The criminals actually advocated the merits of our cause without knowing that it was actually a police business. »
“You have to essentially go back to the old school of sharing notes about people you trust.
“They used to go for walks in the park and make sure they weren’t carrying any devices or things. We had criminals standing in the surf talking about Bondi Beach.
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