Police officers around the world arrest 51 people in orchestrated attack on Ghost crime platform • The Register

Just hours after confirming they had hacked the supposedly unhackable encrypted messaging platform Ghost, which is used for all sorts of organized crime, officers have now released the name of the suspect they arrested last night, who is accused of being the mastermind behind the hack.

32-year-old Australian Jay Je Yoon Jung from Narwee, New South Wales, has been arrested by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and is due to appear in court in Sydney today on five charges relating to the development and management of Ghost.

The platform operated in a similar way to EncroChat, although it was much smaller in scale. EncroChat was infiltrated and taken offline in 2020, and analysis of its users’ communications continues to yield convictions.

Similar to the analysis of EncroChat users, AFP reported today that 38 additional Ghost users are currently facing “serious charges” for their various activities on the platform, including “significant prison sentences.”

The arrests came during two days of action on September 17 and 18, when 700 AFP members carried out searches in four Australian states.

According to AFP, more arrests are expected in Australia and internationally in the coming days.

Ghost has been used by various types of criminals and transnational organized crime groups (OCGs), but its greatest reliance has been on drug traffickers, money launderers, and people seeking to carry out violent attacks on individuals.

AFP Deputy Commissioner David McLean said: “As a result of our efforts we will charge hundreds of criminals, including Italian organised crime, outlaw motorcycle gangs, organised crime in the Middle East and organised crime in Korea, with using Ghost in Australia and overseas to import illegal drugs and order the killing of individuals involved in a range of criminal activities.”

According to AFP, Operation Kraken has already responded to 50 threats to life and violence made by users on the Ghost platform, prevented the distribution of 200kg of drugs to users in Australia and seized 25 illegal firearms and weapons.

Criminals purchased access to Ghost in the form of specialized hardware: devices modified by Je Yoon Jung and reportedly sold through a network of resellers.

These modified smartphones were sold for around $2,350 AUD ($1,593 USD) each. This paid for the hardware itself and a six-month subscription to the Ghost platform. The AFP believes there were 376 units in operation in Australia at the time of writing.

Global effort

The disruption of Ghost has been years in the making. Europol and Eurojust’s Operation Taskforce (OTF) Next was established in March 2022, with other partners around the world invited to contribute.

Led by the U.S. FBI and the French Gendarmerie, law enforcement agencies from nine regions contributed to the investigation of Ghost. These included police forces from Australia, Canada, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden, plus the Italian Central Directorate for the Anti-Drug Service.

Catherine De Bolle, Director of Europol, responded to the news: “Today we have made it clear that criminal networks, however hidden they may be, cannot escape our joint effort.

“Law enforcement from nine countries, together with Europol, dismantled a tool that was a lifeline for serious organised crime. This operation is what Europol is all about: turning cooperation into concrete results by bringing together the right people, tools and expertise to tackle every aspect of this complex operation.

“The work carried out is part of our ongoing commitment to tackling organised crime wherever it operates. I would like to express my gratitude to all our global partners who played a vital role in making this operation a success.”

Emerald in the rough

Justin Kelly, Assistant Commissioner at An Garda Síochána, told a press conference that Ireland has the second largest Ghost user base in the world and that four OCGs in the country had been targeted by police who had access to Ghost.

“During this operation we targeted four Irish organised crime groups involved in drug trafficking, often using violence and intimidation to sustain their illicit trade,” Kelly said. “Most importantly, we dismantled a primary drug trafficking route into our country, seizing drugs with an estimated street value of €16 million ($17.82 million). We deployed more than 300 specialist officers and searched 33 premises across the country during this operation.

“Our operations to date have resulted in 11 arrests and the seizure of €350,000 ($389,830) in cash, and I can assure you that more arrests will indeed follow. During our operation, we have also targeted the key facilitators of this encrypted telephone network and, importantly, seized a number of the suspected handsets.”

Asked whether the Kinahan OCG, one of Ireland’s largest crime families, was among the four OCGs targeted by An Garda Síochána’s efforts, Kelly declined to comment, but said the families targeted were of “extremely high value” and the operation was vital to police.

Mafia boss caught

None of the participating countries in OTF Next provided many details about the arrests they made, although Europol did reveal that among them was a member of Sacra Corona Unita, a mafia group based in Puglia, Italy.

However, the name of the mafioso was not disclosed. Leonardo Lando, Italy’s drug liaison officer at Europol, said the person had been wanted since 2023 and was said to play “a major role” in Sacra Corona Unita.

“Because of the geography, the connection with Albania and this area is very fundamental and crucial for this kind of investigation,” he said. “So we hope that it will be just a beginning for new law enforcement cooperation.”

The only other arrest came in Canada, bringing the total across the nine territories to 51. In the same way that the EncroChat breach is still resulting in arrests in 2024, officials believe many more arrests will follow based on OTF Next’s findings.

“I think a lot will be done now, on the legal side,” said Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, Europol’s executive director of operations. “It may take time, but I think it is the normal time for these kinds of complex cases, where every (piece of) evidence can be challenged by lawyers and so on.

“But, let’s say, it’s part of the game and our democratic system that every (part) of this investigation can be questioned and answered and discussed, first with the investigating judge, but also in court.” He added: “We are quite confident that we have good evidence to go through this process to convictions.”

Linda Staaf of the Swedish Police and former head of the Swedish National Operations Department, said that the Swedish police have not yet made any arrests for “judicial reasons”, but that she hopes this will change in the future.

Sweden contributed to the arrests, but also provided cooperation and intelligence in other areas, including data on a server used by Ghost that was shared with OTF Next members. ®